The great business men
by demosx
Summary: A merchant guild is transported along with its six remaining members to the new world, 50 Years before momonga and nazarik appear. How will the fate of this Business men shape the world that momonga will encounter?
1. Arrival at the new world

Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord, the great Maruyama Kugane does.

* * *

The Grand Market of Bifrost.

Inside the famous DMMORPG YGGDRASIL, this was rumored to be the name of a place where one could buy anything, ranging from weapons, armors, potions, scrolls and even information that could not be found anywhere else,

It was said to be located far, far away from the area that players usually limited themselves to, for fear of the unknown or the level of danger of adventuring further away from the center of the world. This, by the way, was one thing that changed from rumor to tumor: Some said it was found in Jotenheim, others said they saw it in Muspelheim, and so on.

In truth, it was simply the base of a guild called Wicked Ambrosia. This guild focused on trades and exchanges, by either crafting items, selling information, or even acting as mercenaries or grinding for someone else. It was, simply put, a merchant guild.

Because of this, it was not a strong guild. At least not strong for the guild wars that where a common sight in the game.

The guild possessed very few fighters, and most of the other members where highly specialized in crafting or merchant classes. To that was added the fact that said members where what was usually called "Dream Builders".

That is to say, players that rather than building their character fully towards what would be most beneficial gameplay-wise, they expended levels in certain jobs and classes to turn themselves into an ideal; essentially, a character more fitting for role playing.

Normally, the dream builders would be considered as lower level characters, and those specialized in crafts would only be able to produce inferior items.

However, due to the massive amount of content still hidden in YGGDRASIL, some of their odd job choices would grant them the abilities to craft equally odd items that would not be possible to create otherwise.

In this skill, one player saw the opportunity for business that was selling players never-seen-before items, grating them the advantage of the unknown in a game in which information was key. With this idea in mind, the guild was created.

The founding members also decided in a few "rules" just for fun.

First, they're base had to be located in a remote area. Both because there was no way that a small group of merchants accumulating wealth wouldn't be raided, and because, in the word of one member: "It just makes sense that the rare item merchant is harder to find".

Secondly, they stablished the creed that "Nothing is Free". Specifically, never would they hand over anything, be it weapons, potions, help or information to anybody without anything in exchange.

They would not simply put high prices, but many times would rather take something "of value" as payment. Be it a rare drop, information, a treasured yet not-so-good weapon, or the few pennies a beginner managed to scrap.

And finally, everyone was free to do as they pleased, as long as they kept to the "theme" of the guild. While they would take their roles seriously, mostly where people playing just for the fun of role playing, and thus wouldn't commit to the strict organization of a normal guild.

They had enjoyed plentiful adventures in their 12 years playing YGGDRASIL, and had seen many friends come and go. In this, the final day of the game, only six of the guild members were present. They were holding a meeting in a small room, in which all of them were seated around a heptagonal table.

The table was supposed to represent the 7 main buildings that formed the grand market, every one with a specific type of "business":

In the center and at the end of the path from the entrance, The Colosseum offered a multitude of 1 on 1 Duels, players fighting against hordes of beasts, and many different games to entertain its attendants.

To the left of the colosseum and closer to the entrance, the herbalist´s buffet offered Potions & Food to those who wanted an exotic taste, either in the food, or in the de-buffing potions.

In front of the buffet, and on the opposite side of the path to the colosseum, The Chapel of Many and All offered a place for connecting with their gods, and also to buy sacred scriptures in the form of Scrolls.

Right behind the Colosseum, The Silent Office dealt with Information. No matter if it was about hearing or spreading rumors, locating guild bases or dungeons; or even finding out a players regular places, tactics or weakness. No matter the cost, if it was known it was for sale.

To the Right and a little behind of the Colosseum was the Fem Fatale Brothel, with a wide array of Concubines for rent, who doubled as strong Mercenary NPC´s.

To the Left of the Colosseum, the Give a Hand Tent was raised. Here one could ask help with a large variety of Odd jobs. Whether it be exploring a dungeon, collecting herbs, or having strong people following just for show, the Odd Workers were prepared to handled any tasks.

Finally, incrusted in the hill further behind the Colosseum, The Forge of the Primal Steel sent smoke up to the air. Here one could buy from a large display of Weapons and Armors, as well as request equipment custom made for oneself.

The whole perimeter of the market was surrounded by a high wall made of stone blocks, with sentry towers every few meters.

The room they were in, commonly referred to as the Conference room, was located inside the Silent Office, and was thus protected with various methods to prevent information from leaving the room, such as a blocking for the spell [Message]. However, today those measures seemed to be unnecessary, since for the whole day not a single person besides them had entered the market. Nor did anyone seem to be outside trying to spy them.

"Aaaah ~~ This is so boring" Came a female voice from one of the avatars in the room. "Is nobody going to come? Business has been slow lately, but not a single person has come today".

The woman, PuriPuriLilith, looked like a normal Caucasian human, save for the wings that spread from her back, just below her shoulder blades. They were pure and bright white, save for the tips and a few feathers near the end, which were a purplish-black. She was wearing a nun outfit.

She kept making frustrated noises, as well as showing sad and angry emoticons.

"It's understandable" Said the voice of that sounded deep but young. "After all; it is the final moments of the game. Most people would be in the center of the worlds. I heard the devs were going to put a huge display of fireworks at midnight"

The one who spoke was Loxen. Essentially, he looked like a man made of rocks. He played as a Golem, which made him incredibly resistant to attacks and magic, but gave him rather weak attack and very little regeneration. Underneath the superior layer of stone seemed to be molten rock, and was wearing a classic black salaryman suit.

"Yeah, and by this point, nobody is really going to need equipment or help with anything" This voice was a little more laid back, and came from the man seated to close left of the Golem. "Plus, with there being better entertainment, there is essentially no reason for anyone to go through the long and painstaking road that we made sure was the only way to reach us."

This was Wallaquia, He looked like a completely ordinary human, clear brown hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a Carbon Fiber vest with a camouflaged pattern, and one Survival knife strapped to his left side, one pistol on his right side, and one rifle strapped on his back. The only thing amiss, were his crosshair like pupils, which delated him as a cyborg. He also choose to specialize as a gunner to deal large amounts of damage from mid range.

"Better Entertainment?" The voice almost sounded offended "Well, I suppose any event that I could elaborate wouldn't be enough to properly bid farewell to 12 years of glory!"

The man that was getting excited as he spoke was the guild master, Shinsekai Kami, commonly referred to as leader, but more commonly he was called Boss. A humanoid looking creature, but with scales in his fists and forearms, as well as to the sides of his face. He also had claws instead of nails. His was a Dragon Kin, and was wearing a proper business suit with a blue tie, yet despite appearances was actually the strongest fighter in the guild.

"Still, this one feels sadness at the prospect of the final moment of the colosseum being one of solitude and not of cheering glory."

"Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. It's sad to see nobody hanging out at the buffet either." The snore voice belonged to Enges Munra, a man wearing a grayish coat, with his hair and neck covered in what seemed to be a dark green scarf. What little skin could be seen in his face, was grayish brown and looked like petrified wood. His golden eyes big and half open.

"Well, that's that, so it's not like anybody is going to be coming here at this point" Another man said as he stood "I know it's not exactly professional, but for today I suggest we say 'Fuck It' and forget business. For Today" The man called Hest, the guilds ranger, also looked –And was in fact completely- human; he had coal black hair and grey eyes. Attached to the sides of his waist were two equal swords and in his right arm he had an eye-catching gauntlet with a big gem attached in the back of the hand, with runes written around to it. His armor also seemed to be thicker than the normal light leather used by most rangers.

"I am really going to miss this place. Right now, I just want to go around the place and remember the times I have spent here. What do you say guys? There's still one hour before shut down"

"Okay, that's a rather… Coarse way of putting it, but I do feel the same. What does everyone think, shall we disperse to wander our home one last time, and then meet here for the final end?" The Dragon Kin asked everyone in the room.

"Sound good to me" the golem replied.

"Same here" Confirmed the cyborg.

"No objection" Said the Ent.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about." Happily replied the Human.

"Well, it will be less boring than just waiting" Said the Nun.

Having confirmed everyone's agreement, the leader gave his final word. "All right my precious friends let us say goodbye to this precious place of ours. Well meet back here ten minutes before shutdown"

With that, one by one they exited the room, off to explore for the last time the place they considered a second home for so long.

* * *

"Well, what should I do?" The man made of stone wondered.

After leaving the meeting, Loxen started to walk directly towards his workshop: the forge in the hill behind the colosseum. As he walked, he looked around. To each side of the road where a few small buildings, most of them containing a healthy amount of commonly used items, like frequent food and potion ingredients, cheap minerals, and materials to make scrolls and parchments.

The other buildings looked more like small houses. This was due to the insistence of an old guild member, who insisted that "what kind of town has all kinds of buildings for common –and uncommon- necessities yet has no houses for people to live in?"

After that there was an argument about whether it was supposed to be a market or a merchant town, but it was settled when someone argued "But wait, even if it's just a huge market; if and there´s people working every day, wouldn't they need somewhere to live? Even if it's just an employee's - only thing there should probably be something like that"

With nothing else to say, everyone agreed and collaborated to the project –Some more willingly than others-

After walking down the road, he finally found himself in front of his workshop. He sighed, taking in the familiar sight for what was probably the last time.

On the side of the hill, as if it were the entrance to a cave, the arched ceiling of the entrance was decorated with tiles of terracotta.

The doors themselves were rather large, somewhere around 2.5 meters tall. There was no pattern on it, just two rectangular pieces of dark wood with iron straps that attached them to the doorframe.

To each side of the entrance, faithfully guarding their master´s domain, stood Girls.

On the right was a girl tall and blond, with emerald green eyes that had a very serious expression. Her long and pointy ears clearly revealing her to be a high elve. She was clad in leather armor, except for her feet, hands and head and chest plate, were she wore armor made out of a red metal with golden trims.

To her side, in her right hand, rested a long bow made of the same material than the metallic parts of her armor. It was big, and along its surface were traced words in some strange language.

To the left was a shorter girl. She was grayish pale and had raven black hair and eyes. She was wearing a Crimson red tunic, with a gray spiked pattern going through the middle. The hood was taken off, and the girl had a more neutral-happy expression on her face. She was holding to her chest with both hands a black book with red trims, and it had the common rune fore "Fire" as the only marking in the cover.

He looked at both girls, remembering all the time they had protected him when going alone in missions.

"I've left you here just guarding the door for a long time, haven't I? I'm sorry my friends." The stone skinned man murmured to himself. "Hum, the least I can do is make one last gift for you". He opened the door, and paused a moment to remember the command he was thinking off.

Finally, he said "[Follow]" and the two girls abandoned their post, and followed their master into his place of work.

* * *

A woman was seated in the first row of benches in the chapel. It was the nun in charge of the place, the player PuriPuriLilith.

She was seated, a book in her hands. In her window interface, she was reading the contents of said book. It was titled "The rites of the One hundred", a book that she had wrote herself, mostly just as a little roleplay, since she viewed her character as a type of heretic priest that followed nearly all gods, and thus kept a record of every god she had known of and the rites and traditions associated with him. It contained deities from both inside and outside the game.

She would sometimes laugh while reading. It was fun, especially the older chapters, where she could see her mistakes and her less coherent writing. She had decided to never edit the book, since it was supposed to be a "Holy Scripture" and thus however it turned out was divine command. That and, she enjoyed, and felt a little pride, at how the writing got better the longer she kept reading.

Standing beside her was a man in a priest suit. He looked and was completely human, with his hair a pale yellow and his eyes a dim clear blue. He had bags under his eyes from –scripted- extenuation. She had made this NPC as the priest that was entrusted to her, he was a monk class warrior with strong faith and unbreakable will, yet he would be under the constant teasing and temptation from her.

"Well, at least it was fun, being with you all this years." She stood up and contemplated him in full. When she had entered the chapel, she had asked him to bring her the book from the altar.

"I guess this is goodbye… Heh, you must feel happy, having such an annoying person leaving you" The voice sounded stiff. She felt her face heating up and tears that began to form.

After a moment of hesitation, she looked at him and gave him a hug, well, at least as much of a hug as the YGGDRASIL system would let anyone "I can entrust this to you, right?" As she retreated, she deposited the book in the priest's inventory, which manifested in his hands since he didn't have anything equipped.

With that, she turned around to exit the chapel. However, she saw an old friend on the entrance, it was Enges Munra, His tall and thin complexion making her have to look slightly up.

"Hello there thought I'd find you here" he exclaimed. "Saying goodbye is hard, huh?" he said in a quiet and a little melancholic tone.

"Yes, I mean, it's been this long. How about you? Won't you go see your garden and your helper?" She inquired him.

"No need to see the garden, I have committed that place to memory. As for the boy I already did. I too left him a little gift. I suppose it's a sort of thanks for all the company and good memories they've given us." He got off the doorframe, and started walking outside.

"Well, aside from that…" He took a moment to look at the watch in his status screen "It's getting close to the time, should we start heading towards the Conference room?"

"Yeah, let's do that" She replied to him, feeling a little better after hearing she wasn't alone in how she felt towards their creations.

* * *

"Well, well, look at this place" the human ranger, Hest said. "It's even worse than I remembered!"

"We never really got around to cleaning this mess" said mechanical gunner, Wallaquia

The two of them didn't go very far from the conference room, instead choosing to explore some of the rooms of the Silent Office, since it had been there where they had most worked and dwelled.

The cause of their current conversation was a room which walls, floor and ceiling were a chaotic mess of colors, but mostly a dark green and red. Also, there were several dents in the walls like cuts from a blade, and marks of acid in the floor.

"That attempt at interrogation didn't really go well." Hest admitted. "But I still think that torturing that pussy angel guild guy by making him listen to death metal at max volume was a good idea" Even though the avatars couldn't convey facial expression, it was pretty obvious he was snickering. "The fact that he couldn't teleport away was the perfect bonus"

"Still, what exactly happened here? It's not common for blood effects to last this long." Wallaquia wondered just how this hadn't triggered the devs maturity rate detector.

"That's Cause it's not blood. I asked Munra to make special potions for me. They're essentially like the dyes for armor, but you can throw them and paint surfaces. The idea was to use them to annoy the little bitch some more". He explained

"Turns out, it worked really well! We drove him nuts. Except maybe for the part where he escaped and killed two merchants before I put him off. But o well" He explained further. Wallaquias annoyance was palpable in his silence.

"Any way. Turns out, since the potion was as unique and made as a side effect of something else, we really didn't have the appropriate potion that works as a "cleaner" for the dye, and Munra got tired of searching for that so… we kind of just left it as is". He finished.

Wallaquia remained silent for a few seconds, after which he could only say "… I can't even say I'm surprised."

"Meh, let's just go to another room. See what fun memories we can dig from this place!" Exclaimed the human, sounding a little bit too excited.

"Before that." Wallaquia said in a rather dry tone. Which caused Hest to stop and look at him. "Why don't we entertain ourselves with a duel? I believe we could better remember this day if we go out with a fight, or at least a friendly spar, don't you agree?"

It took Hest a second to process that his friend, the one that usually had to be dragged into duels, was asking one of him "That is rare, you asking me to fight? It really just took the literal end of the world for it to happen" They both chuckled at his joke.

"Alright, so let's go outside for this, don't want to cause a ruckus inside and be yelled at in the last day". Said Wallaquia in a Monotone voice.

"Oh, yeah. Before that. I have an idea. Why don't we have some spectators? It is our final duel after all" Suggested the human.

"What do you mean? The only other people that could come see us are likely busy doing their own things" Negated de cyborg.

"No. let's bring them out. I'll bring saphira." The ranger said in an excited voice. "I mean, it's not like we need that much surveillance given the circumstances"

"Fine. I'll call peacemaker. Let's show them a good fight!" Wallaquia was a being way more eager to fight than usual, but Hest didn't comment on it. A special day, one in a special mood he thought.

Once they got outside, the two named woman were already waiting for them.

The one to the left was Peacemaker. Blond curly hair that covered her left eye and dark brown eyes. She carried a tactical espionage suit, completely clad in black. In her back as an anti-tank Rifle that should have been way too much for the slim girl to carry.

To the right was Saphira. With White skin, and silver short hair and eyes, with little patches by the sides of her cheeks where there were small silver scales. She seemed to be carrying no apparent weapons, but was dressed with Light leather armor, perfect for maneuvers and exploration.

"All right girls, your orders are to stand by and watch our duel. No matter to which side the odds turn towards, you are to no interrupt or aid anybody. Is that clear?" Wallaquia lectured the two girls rather energetically.

After that, both stood in front of each other and decided to start by stating the rules of the duel. "First, we don't really have a good terrain nor a number advantage to turn this into a gunfight, so I say we leave those out" Hest stated first.

"Alright, given that it would turn into a stealth and survival battle, and that we are low on time, I accept your conditions". The gunner responded. "Then I ask that no traps be used, since either preparing them beforehand would be unjust in the spirit of a duel" He added.

"Deal" The other one responded without hesitation." Since it was me who mas challenged, I get to choose the starting sing" he said happily. "Saphire. In 10 Seconds, scream 'YES' loudly" With that, both of them tensed and started counting down the seconds.

The second the first sound came out of Saphires mouth, Wallaquia instantly banished.

Reacting, Hest quickly drew both his swords used to block the incoming attack. A second letter sparks flew as the cyborgs Survival Knife clashed into his swords.

"Heh, I saw that. I've gotten used to your [Shadow Stalker]" The human chuckled, as he put more force in his arms and pushed the gunner backwards.

Before he could lose his balance, Wallaquia shifted his body and threw a kick directly at the rangers left knee. To this, Hest retreated his left side so that he was facing him sideways.

Meanwhile his opponent used that frame of time to retreat to a safer position. Not wanting to leave an opening so that he could put him in the defensive again, the ranger activated his skills [Acceleration] y [Unseen Strike]. For a moment, it looked to the cyborg as if his friend had blurred out of existence.

A second latter he threw himself and did a roll to the left. In that same instant came a glowing sword thrusting with a force that could have easily perforated through his reinforced chest plate.

-After such a wide swing he will lose his balance, that's my chance- Thought the gunner while he stopped the roll and ended up crouched. With this, he activated again his [Shadow Stalker] along with his other skill [Deceive], and then he instantly disappeared.

Seeing the same skill had been used, Hest quickly spun around, carrying the movement from the thrust into the spin, thanks to his still active [Acceleration]. He prepared to throw a lateral cut towards the abdomen, while he protected the back of his neck with his other sword, knowing were his friend was aiming.

However, the ranger realized too late that him knowing where is friend would strike was a false perception imposed on him by [Deceive].

Instead of rushing towards the right, and position himself behind Hest as the human expected, Wallaquia had instead gone to the left, and put himself in front of him. Then came the rib-crushing kick to the thorax that the cyborg had prepared.

The attack had stuned his body as well as tacking a good portion of is health, the ranger tried to regain his balance, but found that Wallaquia had –way too soon, he thought- dashed towards him without missing the chance. However, before he could swing his knife, Hest used the item [Smoke bomb].

The surprised gunner let go for just enough time so that the Human could escape. Suspecting a quick counter attack from within the smoke, he activated his Cyborg ability [Enhanced Sensor] to see through the distraction. It was a mistake, however, since the second he activated said skill, his friend had consumed yet another item [Flask of Dawn], a small bottle that released a strong burst of light that blinded the gunner.

This caused Wallaquia´s sight to become completely white, and he stumbled for a moment trying to regain his senses. After confirming that his plan had succeeded, Hest rushed directly towards Him, and as they were about to clash, Hest activated his skill [Backstab] which instantaneously teleported him to the back of his enemy.

He then slashed Wallaquia´s open back, tacking out a huge chunk of his health bar. As the gunner regained his sight, he promptly turned around before crashing to the floor, and lunged towards his friend, who was ready to attack him again.

However, the cyborg activated one last skill, [Target Lock], with this, even if he were to be affected by status effects or physical means that would restrain his movement, his next attack was guaranteed to hit the target.

Sensing this, the ranger activated the ability [Strong Focus], since the only way to stop him would be to defeat him before he could perform the attack.

However, as his attack connected, the damage from the reinforced attack with [Strong Focus] was not enough, leaving Wallaquia with just the smallest bit of his Hp, while Wallaquias last attack left Hest in a very similar condition.

After this both ended in the floor. "So, do we call it a draw?" asked one, tired.

"Yeah, let's leave it at that" the other said.

With that out of the way, both of them stood, and noticed their female companions looking at them.

"Well girls. It's been an honor. Sadly I guess this is goodbye" Wallaquia said towards the two women.

Giving a look at peacemaker he could not help but remember how much the NPC had helped made his job as an informant much easier, and felt a little sting of shame swell in his heart for not showing her a bit of gratitude at least.

Searching through his inventory, he found what he was looking for: an old single action army peacemaker, the starter weapon the game gave him when he took the gunner job class. At this level it was useless to the both of them, but for him it carried a deep sense of nostalgia.

"I know I never gave you anything other than orders since I created you" he said with a heavy voice unlike his normal self "but since this is our last day, I suppose I could give you something" he deposited his weapon in her inventory, and it rendered in her gloved hands. Of course, she simply still held the same blank expression "look at me: with an NPC. Man, how low can you get?" The gunner said, while putting a hand to his face.

"You kidding me? Did you seriously just give your peacemaker, to peacemaker?" Hest said with amusement "I mean, I know you love to laugh at the irony of things; but damn man, that´s quite the cheesy parting gift" his voice carried an underlying sense of understanding.

"Can you shut up" Wallaquia half yelled, annoyed yet at the same time thankful.

"Ah, my beautiful Saphira, you have no idea how much will I miss you! Most women outside from here are all just harpies" he exclaimed.

"Hey, careful with what you say. You still have to deal with those same harpies in the real world" Wallaquia reminded him.

"Yes, Yes" He laughed, but changed his tone to one more solemn, as he turned towards her again "Well… we actually had a really great time together, didn't we? I still remember when I created you years ago: A wonderful dragon and a beautiful girl" He could almost hear Wallaquia roll his eyes.

"At that moment I couldn't possibly imagine that you would grow to become my most trusted partner for exploring and scouting. I'm thankful to you, more than you can imagine…" Hest said as he stared her in the eyes, as he calmly showed his true feelings.

"Now than I think about it, I think i should give you something, too…" he seemed to be looking nowhere as he started to think, and then he started looking through his inventory, knowing exactly what to get "This, the treasure item we got from the first dungeon we mapped together" he de-equipped the item in his necklace slot: a mithrill ring with a Sapphire incrusted in it.

"The gem in it is the same from which I took your name. Maybe I kept it to always have a something to reminded me of you, so that you would be always close to me…" he tried to caress her but there wasn't such an action inside the game, so he just settled for putting it in her necklace slot "Now it's yours" he said with a tone that carried a certain finality.

"At least with this duel you two now have the answer to who is the best between us, hehe"

And after a last look, gathering all the composure he could he said.

"You are dismissed, you can now return with your companions. Should we get going towards the conference room?" asked a down hearted Hest.

"Yeah, let's just do that".

* * *

After entering his workshop, Loxen ordered the two girls to seat in the chairs that were a little removed from his forge, so that they could wait close by but not get in the way.

"Let's see, let's see. What could I make right now?" I said as he –Metaphorically- scratched his chin. "I can't really give you anything that strong since you already have your full set and patterns, so I guess something to compensate your weakness?"

"Iris" He said, looking at the elven girl "You are really nimble and fast, but can be taken out with ease if you can be easily spotted. And you, eve." He said, turning towards the smaller girl "You have an immense burst of damage, but you are rather fragile. Hum…"

After putting into words the task he had to solve, his mind quickly came to an idea, a concept, then a blueprint, then a material list and then the crafting steps.

He fumbled around the rum for a little bit searching for the materials that he needed. After that, it was a rather simple task of following the steps that he had mentally traced.

Before he had finished, he contemplated the mundane looking rings that he had prepared. They were a perfect little addition to the npc´s equipment, but they still lacked something. Something that could make them a really worthy gift to give as the last.

As he thought of something. The ring in his own possession called his attention. It was a silver ring, with one big square emerald, in which was engraved the symbol of the guild: Two hands with their backs touching each other, the hand from above had some coins falling on it, and the hand from below was taking a little bag.

This was the guild ring, and the ring that granted him access to the whole base, and that proved that he was a member.

An idea appeared in his head. He looked for a few more data crystals, and imbued the rings with them.

It was just an addition to change their appearances, the before mundane rings now looked like the one he had, just that they had a sapphire, instead of an emerald and that it looked like iron instead of silver. However, the guild emblem shone beautifully over the stones.

He turned around and walked up to them. "[Stand]" He said, and they rose to their feet "these rings are my parting gift to you. With these, I recognize all the years of adventure we've had together, all the help you have provided, and for always upholding your devotion to me, to our guild. To our home" He fell silent for a moment, as the bitter sentiment washed over him

"Iris, with this ring you will be able to hide in plain sight, for a short time most things will not be able to detect you at all" He put the ring in her inventory, and equipped it in her ring finger.

"Eve, with this ring, you will be able to negate for a short period of time any and all damage that comes your way that deals 30% of your health or less" after saying that, he did the same thing with iris, and equipped the ring in her ring finger.

"you have always been part of my dear home and family, but now, with this I want to let you know, that I truly care for you too." After saying that, he started sniffing. "Oh god, I can't believe I'm weeping like this. And this monologue, I wonder what the others would think, ha"

With that, he reached for the exit, and just when he was about to close the door behind him, he turned around one final time and said "Goodbye, my companions. It was a pleasure to fight by your side".

* * *

"This place seems so big now that it's empty"- The warrior known as Shinsekai Kami exclaimed as he stood alone in the middle of the Colosseum. "I really wish I could grant this scenery one final moment of glory, but there's nobody to watch, and nobody to perform. " A tone of melancholy in his voice, hi slowly moved his gaze over the multitude of row seats.

The Colosseum was kind of the same all around, if one were only looking at the non-restricted areas. Big hallways all around that lead to flights of stairs which took people to their seats.

Almost all of the visible parts of the Colosseum were a whitish-yellow in color, since it was mostly made out of sandstone. The restricted areas however, like the waiting rooms for gladiators, or where they kept traps and beasts, where underground and made out of hard granite.

Since the backstage was no place for a Showman –And besides, he already knew that place well enough- To him, there was only one place left that would be worth visiting at this point.

He went to the furthermost part of the Colosseum, where in the middle there were not the normal rows of seats, but rather one square room that occupied the space of many said rows. This was the Podium, a place for only those most important of attendants.

He went up the stairs needed to reach it, meanwhile he was talking to himself "I guess this old Showman didn't have that much talent after all, for what kind of narrator can't gather the crowd and have them roar to the performances in the final day of the show" The Draconic warrior lamented. "… I shall simply admire my creation from the best point of view, and then take my leave…"

When he reached the Podium and opened the door he was stopped in his tracks, stunned by the sight before him

Standing near the window of the podium stood a woman of incredible beauty. Her hair, long and curly, went down her back and shoulders, reaching further down from her shoulder blades. Her smooth and vibrant skin was of a healthy white color, and her bright green eyes almost seemed to radiate a light that illuminated her face.

She was considerably tall, and also had quite an outstanding body: full of generous curves that could stir something inside the most uninterested men.

Her face was holding a neutral expression, her deep emeralds were looking slightly below, and her mouth shut in a straight line. One could say it was a stare befitting of a ruler judging down her people. For that is what she was: Caesar, Empress of the Colosseum.

"Oh my, good to see you well, Caesar. Yours is a beauty that never fails to leave me speechless" the warrior said, as he approached her to stand by her side. "But what is this, somebody forgot to change you from the last game you were out?"

What he meant, was that she wasn't wearing her common solid purple toga with abundant golden trims and patterns, which was the formal clothing for the empress when watching the events of the Colosseum. Instead, she was wearing a large silver colored breastplate, with strapped protections over the shoulders, and an equally radiant metallic skirt for protection, underneath that, she was wearing light leather clothes dyed red. One sword hung by her side, the handle beautifully decorated with sapphires.

This was the attire reserved exclusively for when the empress herself went down to the arena, ready to participate in the games, and face any who may dire to challenge her.

"Ah, at first I was against the suggestion that we used you as a special event, but once I saw you down there, crushing your unworthy opponents, I knew that that too, was part of your legacy to rule about all" He continued his lonely monologue. "But, you now…." Turning her to look him in the eyes, he said "Seeing you now just gave me an idea. What do you say Caesar, since you're already prepared what to head out for one final game?" He said, as he felt a little smile crawl its way to his face.

…

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The warrior's voice soared "Welcome today, for the one and only, last day of the Colosseum!" he imagined the seats full like they were before, the crowds of people giving mighty cheers to the narrator.

He was now standing again in the middle of the arena, wearing his regular showman attire for the Colosseum: A white toga with golden straps on the shoulders, and a red scarf flowing from his left shoulder to his right lower body. His head was decorated with a laurel wreath, and in his hand he held a microphone.

"Now, since there isn't much time, I shall –Sadly- Jump straight to the main event!" with an exaggerated gesture of his hand, he pointed towards one side of the arena. From there, a big door was opening, and from it came a majestic visage:

Four horses where pulling a chariot: two white in the back and two brown in the front, each row with silver and black armor respectively.

The chariot itself was wide and white in color, with golden trims around the edges, and wing motifs painted in black by its sides. Its two wheels had 12 spokes each, and were big and golden colored.

Atop this magnificent vehicle, stood the only one it would allow to ride it: The Mighty Caesar, pose dignified and sword held high.

"Behold, my friends, for the empress herself will delight us with a show of her strength, as a parting gift to all those watching!" He ignored the silence, and kept going.

"Since there is no worthy opponent to challenge her head-on, her majesty will instead do the laps around the arena fighting off against a group of our best gladiators!" He screamed in excitement.

At this, from the door surged four more chariots, all brown in color, with the dark grey still of the steel covering its borders. Each one was also pulled by four horses, all black with bronze armor. Riding this chariots where pairs of diverse monsters. One had two lizard men using scimitars; another had a pair of skeletons wielding lances, the third one had elves, one of the holding bow; and the final chariot held two bulky mantis-like monsters that fought unarmed.

All of them had reached the starting line. Caesar was alone in the front. Right behind her where the Mantis and the Skeletons, and behind those where the elves and the lizard men.

"Now, START!" the narrator screamed, giving the signal for the chariots to start racing.

With this, all the chariots started accelerating. The first ones to attempt to strike Caesar were the skeletons, making use of the longer range of the spears to try to reach her from a safe distance. This, however, failed since she swiftly repelled of the attack, throwing the lancer off balance and making him clash with his companion that held the reins.

"And the match starts with a futile attempt from our boney friends, but her majesty deals with them with astounding ease!" The warrior-showman screamed.

The unexpected pull caused the chariot, together with the boneheads to crash with the wall of the arena. Next came the mantis, one of which jumped into her chariot. Having to hold the reins and defend from the scythes made Caesar struggle to keep balance.

"One bold moves on part of the insect! But what do you think people, can we have a transgression like that happening!?" He imagined boos and cries of disapproval, like those that he's heard before when something like this happened.

Meanwhile, the lizard men were getting close to reaching her chariot. Realizing she would have to fight two on one if she dint deal with the mantis soon, she pulled the reins hard. The sudden decrease in speed caught the insectoid off guard, chance she used to make a swing at its torso, after which she kicked him out of the chariot, to be stomped by the horses that where still racing towards her.

"Another one down, nobody can stand against our mighty empress!"

When she held back to the reins, the leftover mantis´s chariot was at her right, and the lizard men were to her left. A second latter, both chariots started clashing against her in an attempt at taking out her wheels.

At this, Caesar released the skill that her sword held [Commander´s Whip]. This skill transformed her sword into a long whip, with multiple edges attached along its length.

With a flurry of attacks, she decapitated the three monsters performing the pincer attack.

"Wow! That is the strength of our Caesar, not even with the number advantage can she be overcome!" The loud roar of the cheering crowd came to his mind from some old memory.

With this, she was close to reaching the goal line.

Before however, she sensed the incoming danger, and made swirling motions with her whip in the air above her. Not a second later, a barrage of arrows rained on her. Turning her gaze, she sees the elven bowmen further behind, preparing for another assault.

Then the second rain of arrows came. Caesar deflected them in the same way, except that this time they had been explosive arrows. The resulting impact wave almost made the horses fall.

"What's this? The elves try to overthrow our high mistress with their sheer volume of attacks! But will it work!?" In the center of the arena, he was gesticulating exaggeratedly to accentuate his speech.

With the target out or reach, she turned to one skill in her arsenal, specifically given to her for this type of circumstances.

She used [Temporal Dismount]. With this, a greenish transparent after image of her was left behind holding the reins, and she was free to activate her second skill [Mighty Leap] which allowed her to jump all the way between the moving chariots.

Slamming into the vehicle of the elves, she made quick work of them, since their power was prepared for long distance fights. 5 seconds after the activation of [Temporal Dismount], its secondary effect triggered teleporting Caesar back to replace the afterimage.

"And she uses her extraordinary skills to easily overcome them! Truly the one we claim as our Empress! Caesar! Caesar! Caesar!" To his ears, his chanting sounded like that of the full Colosseum claiming her name.

After this, she crossed the victory line with ease, stopping afterwards to strike her default victory pose: standing straight, with the right arm holding her sword high above her head.

Silently, the warrior made his way to where she stood, the programed "Winner" effects in place: bright light and a seemly endless rain of confetti and roses surrounded her.

He hopped up to the chariot, and approached her. He put his hands on her shoulders, and with a shaky voice he said "Wonderful, you have done wonderfully my friend!" he retreated back and faced her directly. "Though I apologize for not been able to prepare a more epic challenge for you, even still you performed as well as every other time- no, even better than ever before!"

After a moment's hesitation, he reached into her inventory, and placed in it the microphone that for so long –even today- had helped his voice reach the whole stadium. It was a simple item that exponentially increased the amount of people that [Message] could reach, however it would be heard by anyone within its range.

Even though it was a rather cheap Gacha item, he held dear memories of it.

"For so long we both have kept the audience speechless, and yet today I find the silence almost crushing." the warrior paused before continuing "My friend, to you I give this: my voice. For it may never resonate again within these walls". He leapt out of the chariot, and after looking back one last time he said "Goodbye, my friend. It was fun!"

* * *

Slowly, around ten minutes before midnight, everyone gathered again in the conference room. First were Hest and Wallaquia, since they were pretty close by. After that came Enges Munra and PuriPuriLitith. Then came Loxen, and finally, Shinsekai Kami.

This time, however, everyone had a more solemn- or, more exactly- sad mood to them.

"Well my companions. It seems this is the final goodbye" Said the Guild Master. "I really appreciate those of you who stayed to the end. You are all dear friends of mine."

A happy or thumbs up emoticon appeared from everyone. The next to speak was Lilith. "Guys, if it's not too much to ask…" She hesitated for a second "Could we play together again?" her tone had a certain tone of plea to it.

"Whatever do you mean? Of course we will! Be it in YGGDRASIL II, or some other game, but we will certainly reunite. After all, we are comrade businessman, are we not?" the sore voice of Enges Munra laughed.

"To quote and old song, 'we'll meet again, don't know when, don't know where, but it'll be my guess, some sunny day'" Loxen spoke, and then said in a more cheery tone. "We will definitively group back together!"

"Yes. It's been really fun." Was all that Wallaquia said, but everyone knew he meant that from the bottom of his heart.

"Yeah, we will kick ass together, wherever it is that we see each other again". Hest added his own remark.

"Thank you all, really. Now let us wait for the final moment" Added their leader.

The clock in their HUDs signaled 11:59:35.

36, 37, 38…

"You know, it's been so fun guys" Said Loxen.

49,50,51…

"Yes, I really wish we could stay here longer" remarked Shinsekai Kami.

58..

59..

"Well, this is it guys. Good bye" finished Wallaquia.

12:00:00.

…

…

…

01, 02, 03…

"Eh?" a confused sound.

"Hum?" and amused tone.

All of them were expecting the familiar feeling of disconnection, however, that never happened.

"Maybe they delayed the server´s shutdown?" Lilith timidly proposed a raised eyebrow in her face.

"Don't think so. The shitty devs were been pretty damn final about the whole thing." Hest said while frowning, due to remembering the one-sided decision of the developers.

"Interesting. This situation is abnormal. We should gather data" Said Wallaquia, his voice sounding a little stiff. A mechanical sound could be heard as he moved his hand to his chin.

"Wait guys. There's something strange here" Loxen noted, but was unable to determine what caused that feeling. He scratched his head, feeling the hard stone of his templates as he pondered.

"What? The [Message] function doesn't work, I can't contact an admin!" their leader exclaimed.

"Wait. More importantly, when did the HUD disappear?" said Munra, beginning to panic.

"All right everyone, let's calm down. Maybe there was some sort of bug while trying to shut down the server." Their leader commented.

"I just can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. But god, what is it?" Loxen sighed, as he started loudly tapping the table.

"Hang on a second, Loxen how come you are… moving. Like. I can hear you _Tapping_ the table!" as Hest stood and saw everyone turn towards him, with different expressions on their faces, he realized something else. "Guys, I think I got it now" his face seemed a mixture of shock and amusement. Everyone watched him expectant for what he had to say. "We are now _in_ the game. Like, now reality _is_ the game!" That was not what they were expecting.

"Aside from Hest going nuts from panic over there" Lilith said, giving an exasperated sigh. "Does anybody have a clue?"

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Hest said as he moved closer to her. "Here, ill prove it!" after saying that, he grabbed the point of one of her wings, and started caressing its feathers. "See! This feels pretty damn real to me!"

Not a second later and he was on the floor twitching in pain, Lilith having punched him in the face when she got surprised by the sudden sensation. She showed him her fists, face still red from anger. "Don't you dare touch me!" she screamed shyly and angry at the same time.

They were all standing now, surrounding the beaten up Hest as he stood again. "Well, that seems convincing enough for me" Loxen nonchalantly said as he shrugged.

"There could be an alternative explanation. Perhaps the launch of a second engine, more powerfull?" Wallaquia pondered.

"One that took for surprise its players, without singing an agreement contract, and didn't have an 'Exit' Button? I don't think so. The legal fallout would be disastrous" Munra added.

"Whatever it is, we just need to calm down, I'm sure the Developers will soon enough contact us" Their leader proclaimed. "Wait. Did anyone hear that?" He said next.

They all listened, and, surely enough; it sounded like an entire battalion was running. They instinctively knew that, whatever it was, it was going towards THEM.

Without a single extra second to prepare, the door to the conference room suddenly was blown out, as a bunch of people rushed to get in.

The sheer amount of shock they felt at that moment wasn't because they were facing the unknown. In fact, all the faces in front of them were extremely familiar. What came next, not so much though, as two of them reached towards them and spoke.

One had chocolate brown hair and was clad in silver armor, and the other was a tall blond with pointy ears. They, like the rest of the people behind them, had steams of tears coming from their eyes, and wore deeply worried expressions.

"Master, what is happening? What is it that you are biding me farewell!?" The brown haired lady got close to the Guild master and asked him in a pleading tone. "Did I do something, what has happened!? Please do not abandon me!" She hugged him and cried in his chest.

Meanwhile, the tall blond silently approached Loxen, a sad and bitter expression on her face.

"Loxen-sama, what is happening? You give us such magnificent gifts and yet…" She bits her lower lip and clenches her eyes in frustration. A single tear runs down her cheek. "And yet you suddenly say that they are parting gifts? That's…" She stops for a moment to prevent herself from sobbing. "That's just too unfair…" with this, she finally looks him straight in the eyes, rooting him in his position. She had a hurt expression like none he had ever seen before.

Loxen thought he would be paralyzed like that forever. Until he heard hearty laugh come from behind him.

"HA! Take that, I TOLD YOU!" Hest happily exclaimed. "I TOLD… YOU…all…" After which, he fainted.

Oddly enough, there wasn't much of a reaction to the the sight of their companion falling to the floor. Lilith herself found it a little hilarious.

However, a mighty scream came from the crowd. "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" as some of the presents started to be pushed away, the culprit was revealed to be the ranger known as Saphira, who was now rushing forward.

"MAAAAASTER, YOU DIDN'T LEEEEEAVE" while running, she shoved away the tall blond, as she saw her as an obstacle. The silver haired girl jumped over Hest, still laying unconscious on the floor, and hugged him like there was no tomorrow "WUEEEEEEE, IM SO HAPPYYYY" the girl exclaimed. as tears started rolling down her cheeks, and she rubbed then on the unconscious man's chest. As she pressed against him, a sound like a bone moving out of its place was heard.

Meanwhile Wallaquia´s mind was racing at a mile per minute, considering many possibilities about just how a thing such as this could happen, perfectly aware that this effort was futile.

Normally, he would be panicking like the rest of his guild mates, and deep inside he was; but something was not allowing any emotion whatsoever to show on his face, nor for them to hinder his thinking process, which was almost working faster than he could keep up with.

He would have been fine with it, if not for the fact that the repeating message that his overloaded mind was sending him was, in resume, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

And that felt like a thousand needles going deep inside his brain, urging him to gather information, to research, to find the truth. And so he tried to do that.

"I'm going to investigate" he said in an urgent as he tried to push past the crowd gathering at the entrance.

"Wait what? You can't leave right now! We don't even know what's happening!" Munra said after returning to his senses

"And that's exactly why we can't just stay here sitting Munra"

He was almost reaching the entrance when Munra tried to move towards him

"wai-" Munra´s complaint was cut short, since a monotone voice interrupted him

"Master, for your safety I cannot let you leave"

His steps halted before he could even reach the door

"Peacemaker"

"Even if I have to use force to make you stay I will do it, so please master, refrain from leaving this room" She said with the smallest hint of a quiver in her voice.

He could see she was lying, even before he could reach the door he knew that none of the npc could stop them from doing so, they were essentially just begging for them to stay.

But he could not move her from the door at all. Not because of her feeble attempt to lie, nor because of the threat, and not even because of his guild.

"Are you aware, that pistol will do nothing to me?"

Her trembling hands were holding the weapon he had just given her, his peacemaker

"The moment this pistol rested upon my hands, I knew it was the best weapon I could ever wield". She said with monotone confidence in her voice.

He kept on walking towards the door –towards her- while she was still aiming at his heart. He put his hands on the top of the door frame over her head, and moved his face closer to hers.

"Please master" she said, her voice finally showing her despair, yet still not putting the gun down; rather, she was now aiming for his chin.

Watching her glacial eyes up close, he could see the beginning of water coming out of them. He extended his finger, catching the tear before it could reach her cheek.

"Well. Damn. Now I feel like an asshole" He said as he took a step back.

Now feeling in control of his mind again, he walked back to the table and sat down; putting his hand on his, face rubbing his eyes in an exasperated manner.

The rest of the Crowd could just look thankfully at peacemaker for her bravery, who was now rubbing her eyes to get rid of the tears trying to come out.

"Okay. Yeah. Wow. That just happened" a rather confused Lillith exclaimed, as she looked with a bit of incredulity towards her friend, now seated back at the table.

"Alright, everybody listen!" The sudden voice of the guild leader surprised everyone present, since he had been quiet since the crowd entered the room. With soft motions, he separated from the still teary-eyed girl that was hugging him.

"There seems to be a REALLY confusing situation going on that we Businessman need time to discuss. So as your boss, I shall ask every one of you: please, get out"- He said, a second latter murmurs of confusion and panic started to spread to the crowd. Before they could get out of control again, however, he repeated his order in a louder, more authoritarian tone "I said, get OUT!" as he motioned towards the door for everyone to leave.

As the last one of them exited –Caesar- and looked back for a brief moment with worry, before shutting the door. "Alright, with that out of the way" their leader exclaimed, addressing the other 5 players in the room. Everyone held their breath for what he would say next, some expecting their leader to make sense of the bizarre situation.

"First things first" he said as he looked at everyone in turn.

"What the FUCK do we do now?"


	2. Surprise Inspections

Good day everyone, we are finally back.

We´re really sorry, IRL stuff hit us like a truck, to me and my co-writer/editor. This chapter was supposed –Like I told GloriousHyperWeapon when he PMed me- to be finished by Monday of the previous week.

I would like to thanks everyone for their support; we will try to meet your expectations! Now, onto the story.

* * *

Seven beings were seated around and heptagonal table. The room was completely silent, except for the sounds of heavy sighs and the tapping of a finger or a foot.

The culprit of their current situation was simple, rather common; yet at the same time more important than it will likely ever be: What to do now?

Since their guild master´s unusually vulgar way of phrasing the question, everyone had been deep in thought. In one side, the reality of the situation was obvious: Somehow, they had found themselves transported into the game, inhabiting their avatars bodies, and with the NPCs they created having come to life.

On the other side, however, every inch of common sense they held within themselves was screaming at them about the impossibility of the situation. However, having seen more than enough proof so that they couldn't think they were still inside the game; they could only sit uncomfortably trying to think of something.

It was Wallaquia, confused as he himself sounded, who broke the silence.

"Everyone, I stand by my previous statement. We _need_ to gather information. Sitting here idly won't solve any of the questions we are facing." The cyborg said with closed eyes as he rubbed his left template, trying to deal with the rising headache.

"Whether we are in some sort of new YGGDRASIL version, or that the game has become reality…" He paused. The headache increasing as he considered the possibility, his brain sending him almost countless logical error warnings.

"…One thing is for sure. We have to assess our situation. This place, whatever it actually is; seems to be, at least so far, based on our guild base from the game" He said as he sighed, the roundabout way of speaking apparently helping ease the headache.

"Well, if we're going to go by that logic" continued the bushy being known as Enges Munra. "That is, assuming 'this' is real, then first we should make sure of our safety. We know there are plenty of dangerous things housed in this place"

"Wait, if we are going to worry about the dangers of the base, shouldn't we first worry about the NPC´s?" Hest said as he held the right side of his ribcage "I mean, if they really have come to life –and let me tell you, that hug felt pretty damn real- there is no guarantee that they are actually loyal to us or the market"

At this, it was Loxen who answered him "…No. I don't think we have to worry about that. The face iris had just a moment ago…" He said, closing his eyes as if he were recalling something from long ago "… You just _can't_ make fake that sort of feeling. I believe you think the same. Right, boss?" The golem said as he turned to look at their Guild master.

The man looked at his hands for a moment, before lifting his reptilian eyes to look at Loxen "Caesar, she… the worry in her eyes, her pleading voice asking for an explanation… she was genuinely worried about me leaving" He said with conviction in his voice.

"But what if that's true and they have heard what we've told them… wont they resent us for just suddenly leaving them?" Lilith said in a worried voice.

"Except we did not leave. We are here!" Exclaimed the dragon kin "I do not know what has happened to us but, if this truly is reality, I cannot bring myself to dislike this. If they truly are the companions we created along our long journey, which whom we have shared so many memories; I have the feeling I can trust in them, as much as I can in all of you" He finished, as he looked around the table.

"You are getting highly emotional, boss" Wallaquia´s stiff voice answered him "But, yes. I partially do feel the same way" he did a pause before continuing "I propose the following: taking into account the possible risks that some of the NPC´s could represent; we should personally inspect all of them, all the while trying to gather as much information on the current situation as possible" He finished his proposal and asked "Is this course of action acceptable?"

"It's fine by me, I was kind of thinking on doing just that." Loxen readily agreed with his cybernetic companion, the others making sounds of agreement. "However, before that" He motioned towards the door "What do we do about the crowd currently waiting outside for an explanation?"

"For now…" Munra said slowly, considering what he would say next "We should do something about their panic. If they think we are still going to leave, then perhaps we can convince them that our departure has been canceled?" he proposed, a bit unsure himself.

"But what if they ask our reason for leaving in the first place?" asked Hest.

"We can tell them that…" Lilith pondered for a moment, trying to come up with the right words "a 'Force' –the devs- stronger than us was going to 'Destroy' –disconnect- us from the world, but that we were able to deal with that threat?" She said a bit unsure "I mean, technically it is not a lie"

"I can work with that" Said loxen as he shrugged.

"Acknowledged. Now I will propose the places to inspect. I would also like for us to go in pairs, for the sake of safety" Wallaquia explained "First, me and Hest will be inspecting the security towers and the underground exits. Second, Lilith and Munra should scout the chapel, the library, the brothel and the Buffet. Finally, boss and Loxen should inspect the treasure room, the tunnels and the second underground floor" as he finished distributing to everyone their instructions, he asked for agreement "Is this okay?"

Again, everyone made simple sounds of agreement. Oddly enough finding a little familiarity in this meeting, as it was taking place almost like any other reunion about the common activities of the guild.

With that said, everyone stood from their seats and went towards the door. After a brief moment of exchanging glances and everyone making affirmative expressions, it was Hest who finally pushed the door open.

As the door swung open, the same crowd from before came into view, variant degrees of worry showing on their faces.

Before the silent congregation, the six beings that created them all stood awkwardly. After a few seconds like this, it was Lilith who came forth to speak.

"…Hello everyone, we er…." She paused, not knowing how to even start explaining the situation.

 _Come on Lilith, you can do this!_ She thought _Give a speech like you always do!_

"E-hem" she cleared her throat "As we have informed you, we were in our way to leave this place" She said in the usual high and confident voice she used when she role played as the head nun of the church of many and all.

"However, we can assure you that it was never on our free will!" _Yes! That works, keep it up!_ "A… Force, stronger than all of us combined was threatening to erase our very existence, together with everything we have built here" She could see the looks of shock and surprise in the face of her listeners.

"But! We were able to successfully vanquish it!" She exclaimed as she threw her arms to the air. "However…" At this her tone became a more serious one "After this, we have now found ourselves in a completely unexpected situation, and thus we were just now debating our next course of action" _Alright, I feel like I can keep this up._

"That's why you must not fear, my children!" her voice slowly rising in tone and strength "For who would willingly abandon their son´s and daughter´s? No, my little lambs" She exclaimed as she looked around the crowd.

"We had been struck with mighty grief at the thought of leaving you behind, and thus we said farewell; so that even if we could not overcome the threat looming above us, we could at the very least enjoy one final memory together with you!" _hurray! That's it, perfect!_

"This is why we request that you continue your faithful service to us, your masters, so that we can overcome the unknown together" _Alright, I should now wrap it up nice and clean._

"Now rejoice! Our creations! For your masters will stay with you, for all the years to come!" she started panting a little as she finished her speech.

Deeply moved by her words, the NPC´s started cheering and clapping, some even had tears rolling down their eyes.

 _Wait… did I perhaps just get carried away, and said something that could bite us back latter?_ The sound of Wallaquia´s metallic hand slamming against his face was all the confirmation she needed.

"Errr… with that said" The dragon kin came forth as he stepped in front of Lilith "Now, now everyone please calm down! So that we can assess the uncertainty that has befallen us, we would like to request your assistance in helping us inspect our dear home; to make sure that everything is under control" He calmly expressed his request, which seemed to fill those listening with excitement and expectation.

When he finished, Wallaquia came to speak to him from behind, so that none of the NPC´s could hear him. "What in the name of Shodan are you saying?" his voice sounding both worried and angry.

"Listen, we need to look natural if we are going to be, essentially, interrogating them. Besides, those gathered here seem friendly enough; I don't think they are a threat to us" The guild master whispered to him.

"I digress" he quickly replied "But I guess it is a risk worth the payoff"

"Alright. Now, my precious friends, please choose those who will accompany you" the guild master urged his fellow players.

"We will be taking peacemaker and Saphira" Hest happily exclaimed.

"Yes, Hest-Sama!" replied both girls, one more love-struck sounding that the other.

"Wait, what? Can you people stop doing unnecessary things!?" Wallaquia exclaimed, but when he saw the others doing the same, he just sighed dejectedly.

"Iris, Eve, would you like accompany us?" Loxen asked them gently "Also, I assume you'll want Caesar to come too, right leader?"

"... Yes, that is exactly what I would like, so what do you say girls?" He asked them in a tender tone.

"Of course, it honors me to be selected by the Great Business men" Came Iris response.

 _So that's how they refer to us? A little embarrassing, but I find it rather like it._ Though Munra as he tried to hide a soft smirk.

"If you are okay with me, Loxen-sama" the small Eve said, as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"For my master, I will go to the ends of this world!" exclaimed Caesar as she drew her sword and pointed it to the sky in a grandeur manner.

"Haha, that is perfect then. We shall be parting soon" Loxen´s Hearty laughter sounded even stronger due to his deep voice.

Next, Munra and Lilith looked at each other for a moment and both nodded.

"Venedict" Lilith said in an authoritarian voice.

"Boy" Munra imitated her, albeit in a more professional and less strict tone.

At this, two people answered: the priest who now held lilith´s book in his hands; and a plain looking boy wearing a lab coat, with raven hair and bags under his eyes.

"As my lady commands me" The priest said with a soft smile.

"Very well, teacher" The boy exclaimed a he took a step forward.

With the chosen NPC´s now by their master´s sides, the guild master gathered everyone's attention for a final word. "Everyone else, please return to your usual schedule, and keep doing a good work!" he happily encouraged them.

After the other NPC´s had dispersed, he looked at those remaining "Well my friends, it is time that we go. Let us reunite after we finish"

"Back at the office again?" Asked Munra, as he and Lilith were going off towards the fem fatale brothel, the closest of their stops.

"…No, we shall meet at the Colosseum. I have an idea" He said while looking towards the massive structure.

"Alright, so we´ll meet you guys there then!" Cheerfully said Hest as he started walking towards the nearest watch tower.

"That guy…" Wallaquia complained as he started following him "Can he take this a little more seriously…"

"Alright, I think we too should be going now" said loxen, and they started heading towards the entrance to the underground levels.

* * *

In YGGDRASIL, the guild base had been located on a small desert surrounded by mountains that left one zigzagging path as the only entrance, and the base was protected with magic that didn't allow it to be detected from air. This way, to find the base, players would have to go through the correct path through the mountains, and those who entered the desert could easily spot the guild in the far distance.

However, that alone would be not enough reach it, due to the immense amount of magic traps, traps with caged monsters and hazards, mercenary NPC´s and even paid players that were scattered and hidden in the area, making it so that there would only be one specific path that would be safe of traps and ambushes. This ensured that only those who were allowed to know the path could actually reach the market.

However, as Hest, Wallaquia and the two girls following approached the nearest watchtower; the elf stationed there called for them, giving word that something strange had happened: The surrounding terrain had changed, the market was no longer in a hot dessert.

When they inspected their new surroundings they could not believe their eyes.

"Well this is new" said Hest with a tone of amazement

And indeed it was an amazing sight: mountains almost reaching the sky with small bases –The widest was 100M in diameter- separated from the bottom, giving the impression of a forest of stone pillars that extended further than the horizon in all directions; Also, given that almost no sunlight made it through the estrange mountains, there was few vegetation growing at the bottom where they were now walking, most of it composing of small plants and weird mushrooms; giving an ominous but beautiful look.

"So basically, as of right now we don't know where the fuck we are?" Hest asked while trying to see how high the mountains were using a pair of binoculars.

"In a manner of speaking, yes"

Extending his hand to one side, a dark portal appeared in which Wallaquia put his hand and withdrew an item. He was reaching inside his game inventory, which they had coincidentally discovered when Hest subconsciously "reached" for his exploration binoculars, which he didn't have equipped at the moment.

The item which Wallaquia had withdrawn was called [Small Bag of Gadgets], which was a cyborg-class exclusive item that would contain a certain number of convenient gadgets to be extracted from daily. This gadgets where mostly, in game terms, non-magic versions of certain spells. Most of them were about information gathering, so that the robotic players could still partake in these activities.

Fully prepared now, the gunner began to explain his planned course of action.

"First, we should inform the others about our sudden change in environment. I have a hypothesis I want to test. If we are in out avatar`s bodies, and something as esoteric as the game inventory is still working, then perhaps our spells still work too" He paused a moment before chanting "[Message]" Instantly, he could feel something like a wireline connecting him to the other 5 members of his guild, which he mentally targeted the [Message] towards.

"Hello everyone. This is Wallaquia. I am currently attempting to use the spell [Message] for communication"

After a few seconds of silence he could hear two voices: "Shinsekai here, loxen and I can both hear you" and "Munra. Lilith and I are Listening as well". Having confirmation of his teammates, Wallaquia started his explanation.

"Perfect. Hest and I have something quite strange to report. As of now, the area surrounding the guild base is an unknown mountain valley that stretches all the way to the horizon, all around us"

"What" _that's loxen I believe_ "How come? We have always been in a desert"

"Maybe whatever got us here also switched the base´s location?" The only female voice amongst them suggested.

"Perhaps, but that just means that our controlled route of access to the base has been lost, which can only be considered a weakening of our defenses. Hest and I will proceed with the scouting as planned, and if anything comes up I´ll [Message] you again."

"Alright" said Lilith and the guild leader, and "Understood" Came from both loxen and Munra.

"Now as for us" He said, while turning to look at Hest "We should not get too far from the guild base considering how lost we seem to be at the moment, but it would be wise to set some security measures" extracting from the backpack an oval looking object with a lens at the center "these are motion sensors, they will alert me of anything moving outside that is not an animal" putting them all out on the ground he fiddled in his bag for some more things "cameras and mines would come in handy"

"I would not do that" the ranger was giving a disapproving look "cameras are ok but mines would disturb any animals and beasts around. Not to mention that it would be a bad idea to seem aggressive if anyone finds the base right now".

The Cyborg was considering what the scouting expert had said, while taking an inquisitive look at his things on the ground; when he heard a loud noise take place just behind them and took a look at where Peacemaker and Saphira were arguing

"You know nothing! Wallaquia-sama might be the best assassin but my master did not lose!"saphira claimed while waving her arms in the air

"My master clearly was having the upper hand in that duel until Hest-sama took a more defensive stance, besides he did not have his equipment" said peacemaker while having a monotone but confident voice

 _Maybe this was not my greatest idea_ Hest thought, looking at the frown that appeared in his friend's face.

"Mine didn't either! If someone won that fight it was my master!"

 _Well shit, this will not work if they keep arguing like that._ Even Though many would think Hest was a person that didn't take anything seriously was- while not far from the truth- not exactly the case. There was one thing he always took seriously, and it was his role as the scout; even so, he had only one rule when making fun of things.

Never, under any circumstance, make noise while exploring. And if you are a noisy person then you better not get close during an expedition.

"All right listen up!" the human screamed startling the two of them.

"This is exactly why Wallaquia thought it would be a bad idea to take you two outside; we can't explore and put things in place with all the noise you are making." He told them with a really serious tone "If you wanna fight, then do it in the base, but if you can't be quiet here for ten seconds then get out of my face!"

 _Aaaaand he's mad_ , _but maybe it's for the best,_ _and you are making noise too just so you know._ Wallaquia thought himself, relaxing a little. Though he would not dare tell him that right now.

"Yes!" said Peacemaker more accustomed to the rash voice due to her military training.

"I-I I'm sorry master…" the silver haired girl said while looking at her feet with her hands behind her back.

 _Men I feel bad now. Did I overdo it? But I shouldn't take it back right now._

"Hey, you think this will be enough?" murmured Hest.

"I am not saying they can't be trusted, but at least for now they should be separated, well that and I want to test a theory" Wallaquia got up and looked at them "Peacemaker you will go with hest, Saphira come with me".

At this Peacemaker shot a desperate look at him.

"Bu-but master!"

"Take it as punishment" He simply told her.

Saphira meanwhile stared pleadingly at her master, but he kept on looking mad.

"It's an order Saphira" the human said, ending the discussion.

 _Well they seem to prefer going with their creators, which is to be expected. But will they follow orders from others?_

"We will only take the sensors and cameras and place them around the perimeter of the base, then we will meet in an hour at most at the other side of the walls. If one of us do not reach that point in time then take it as an emergency, clear?"

"Yeah , but just in case" Hest put his hands in front of Wallaquia, closed his eyes and said "[shared vision]" after that he opened his eyes.

"Did it work?"

 _I think so yeah._

He could see himself when closing his left eye

"Yeah , and I look awesome" said the cyborg, looking at himself for the first time. They shared an amused look and went on their way.

* * *

 _So this place it is, huh?_ Thought a somewhat hesitant Munra.

They were now standing before a Victorian era house made entirely of dark wood, with stairs leading to the front door. The building was two floors tall, with elegant crystal windows placed all around its façade. The view, however, was obscured by the thick magenta curtains hanged from the inside. It's roof was triangular, covered in black tiles.

"We are here simply to evaluate the state of things, I don't want any of you going off and doing something unsightly" She proclaimed, to what the three men following her gave her surprised looks. "Te-hee! I´m just joking" She winked at them.

The two older men sighed, both used to the girl's usual antics. The younger man remained silent while looking slightly to the side. However, Lilith picked up on the very slight red tone the boy´s cheeks had acquired. _Easily flustered, aren't you? Hehe, I´ll have some fun latter tormenting him a little…_

Thinking his embarrassment went unnoticed; the young man cleared his throat and exclaimed "Can't we deal with this quickly, teacher? I wish to continue my studies."

"The young lamb is correct; this is no place for us good fellows to dwell in" Quickly agreed Venedict. _And neither do I want my holy lady to get any more ideas to torment me…_

"Alright, alright. Sheesh, didn't take you for such wimps." Lilith exclaimed in a mockingly exasperated tone.

Going up the stairs, she stood in front of the elegantly decorated door, which had beautiful patterns carved on the coffee brown wood. After a small pause, he opened the door and went in, the three men following suit.

The room they entered smelt heavily of incense, and had very dim lighting. It was a room with multiple sofas arranged around the walls, except on the right side; where there was a wooden counter.

Seated on the various sofas, where a multitude of girls of various species, all of which had diverse yet equally beautiful appearances. They were all wearing slight variations of the same uniform: a dark magenta corset with black trims, dark translucent thigh-high stockings, black hills; and silk black gloves that covered up to the bicep.

In the counter stood a tall woman with an abundant chest, long cyan hair and slightly tanned white skin. She wore a full black dress, it's big skirt with multiple frills reached all the way to her ankles; black fingerless gloves and a black translucent veil partially hiding her face. Her posture was straight and refined.

The group approached the counter, with Lilith leading them. This, of course, caught the attention of the woman; who upon recognizing them immediately came closer to welcome her masters.

"Lady Lilith, professor Munra! To what do I owe the honor of this unexpected visit?" –the woman asked in an elegant and soft voice.

"Madam Lorelei, greetings" Lilith answered in her solemn voice "We are simply on a… small tour around the market, making sure that everything is in order"

"Ah, a surprise inspection it is" Lorelei answered, with an understanding tone in her voice "I can assure you my lady, that all of our merchandise is in perfect conditions. But perhaps you would like to test that for yourselves?" She asked with a slight grin on her face.

 _Inspection? Well, that makes this go smoother… wait, test the merchandise..?_ An devilish idea came to Lilith´s mind, and mentally thanked the woman for the inspiration.

"Sadly, Munra and I will just talk for a bit, since there are other places that need inspecting" Then she made a rather scary smile, as she pulled the younger man from the group behind her "However, I´ll have this young lamb be under your service, so that he may latter report to me the results" She exclaimed as she presented the boy to Lorelei.

"What!?" the three men simultaneously exclaimed.

"Ehem… Lilith-sama? You must be joking?" the boy asked as he tried in vain to release himself from Lilith´s grasp, who was tightly grabbing onto his lab coat. His expression tried to remain calm, but the horror in his eyes was impossible to hide.

"Come on, don't be such a wuss boy…" she said she held him. "…Now that I think about it, what was your name again? I can't remember the last time I saw you since Munra created you" The nun asked with a puzzled expression, still keeping her strong hold.

"Johann, his name is Johann" Munra exclaimed with both amusement and annoyance.

Meanwhile, the veiled woman motioned towards three of the girls, to come and grab the young man: One had canine nose and ears, with cream fur covering her skin; the other, A tall Cyclops with green hair, and a harpy with thin eagle feet and big scarlet wings. The three of them came and took the struggling Johann out of the angel´s hands.

"Anyway… Madam Lorelei?" Munra directly focused his attention on the blue haired woman. "Have you noticed anything… different, today?" The ent asked with a bit of hesitation.

"Teacher! You´re just going to throw me to the dogs too?" Johann almost pleaded.

"Deal with it, think of it as research if you have too" His creator simply replied. This earned a soft chuckle from Lorelei.

"Boy, stop resisting. You will only increase my lady´s future interest in tormenting you" The priest calmly informed him.

"Et Tu, Brutus?" By this point Johann seemed to stop struggling and just hung his head, while being dragged by the three girls through the door on the wall in front of the entrance, likely towards the second floor bedrooms.

After watching the student disappear with the three girls, the Madam turned her attention once again to her masters. "I´m afraid that I haven't noticed anything of relevance or out of place professor Munra, everything has been running perfectly since we remodeled the place after the great robbery" She explained, lowering her head, feeling she wasn't of service to her creators.

"It is alright, my dear" Lilith softly lifted the woman's head with her hand "The fact that there is nothing to report is actually reassuring, so do not feel down" she told her with a gentle smile on her face

"Thanks, my lady!" She said with renewed vigor, having her worrieds vanished by the soft hand of her creator.

This surprised even Lilith a little, who could only give an unsure chuckle in response.

"Well, if its like that, then its fine" Said Munra as he moved towards the entrance.

"You are already leaving? But you have barely been here a moment" Asked the Lorelei, sounding a little disappointed at the thought of the visit ending.

"There´s no problem, we only had that one question for you. See you later" He said, waving a hand behind his back. _Besides, I got plenty information out of that little encounter; but the most important is that We've confirmed their non-hostility towards us._

With that he exited the brothel, after which Lilith and Venedict gave a quick goodbye and followed him.

* * *

While walking, Hest couldn't help but think about how nothing that he had explored before came even close to this.

 _I wonder if Saphira would remember if I asked her_. The human pondered.

 _Peacemaker is technically useless for this kind of task; but I really needed someone who can deal damage at mid-range just in case I can't use spells._

"Excuse me Hest-sama" the cordial voice came from behind him.

He responded while taking a look at a strange looking rock on the ground. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you could answer some questions about the explanation Lilith-sama gave about your fight with the powerful beings"

 _God dammit lilith._

"Let's keep going, get this cameras high on the mountains and maybe I'll answer you when you get down"

"Yes!" peacemaker said with a military salute, then taking a leap for the mountains

 _If she's anything like that dick then she's not going to let this go, I gotta think of something he would say so there's no confusion later._

After setting everything up peacemaker came back, landing on one knee in front of him.

"It is done Hest-sama"

"Well done, let's get going"

Continuing the walk, she kept her distance behind him

"As for your question" she stared at him expectant "there is no real answer I can offer you"

"How so? they were beings outside of even your understanding?"

 _This sounds too cringy for my tastes but I guess it will do for now._

"Yeah, not even me or Wallaquia could do anything against them, even if we tried it would have been futile so that's why we said our goodbyes before the fight"

 _I feel weird talking like this but I guess I have to look composed and shit at least in front of them._

Peacemaker was more understanding than shocked, which was an understatement considering she heard the same explanation from Lilith, but something was amiss, her master always said that no matter what, the truth depends on how much information you are given, and this was not enough.

"If so why were master and Hest-sama dueling? would it not be best to be in top condition when fighting against this beasts?"

 _Fuck me,_ _she's_ _just like him! Come on, think fast!_

"Well uhhhh… We were talking about how We never settled our rivalry in terms of fighting, and we wanted to at least put an end to it before going into battle. That's why we didn't use our equipment either, we wanted to make it as even as possible"

He took a glance behind him to see if she took any of his bullshit _,_ and to his surprise she seemed pleased with what she heard.

"I see, thank you Hest-sama" said peacemaker giving a smile of gratitude.

 _I dodged that bullet just slightly I wonder if walla is having the same problem._

Meanwhile Wallaquia was having a hard time not laughing, since Saphira she was talking nonstop, but never about what happened.

"Then master told me to hide and he beat almost all of them Wallaquia-sama! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them dropping everything and running outside of the cave!"

Making a humming sound while smiling, he looked at where she put the cameras and sensors, seeing them in the perfect places and angles.

 _Hum. She may be a little on the childish side but that doesn't mean she is not skillful at what she does best._

He tuned her out while thinking. _We are leaving a very important detail, that we've yet to discuss, or maybe…._

"Saphira grab the last few and put them really high up this time will you?"

She did a backflip, and landed face to face. "Consider it done wallaquia-sama!" she shouted energetically.

After she was gone he kept on thinking about what to do.

 _If we are inside the game, that means that either we were completely transferred, or our bodies were left without care on the outside. If the latter is the case, We don't know the differences in time between here and there but as of now the time seems to be running normal, that either means that "this" is now reality or that time itself became that of the outside._

 _But then why the shift in daytime? Unless we are really far from the point of our conception. Then that must be it, but that is not the priority right now._

For the first time since reaching this world, the gears inside his head came to a stalemate, it felt like everything fell silent for a few minutes. Until Saphira jumped down from the mountain.

"Done already?"

"Yes wallaquia-sama!"

Using his enhanced vision, He saw the camera pointing down from up in the mountains.

 _Now, what should I tell them when they ask about our situation?_

While he pondering this, Saphira could see something was troubling him. She remembered peacemaker saying something earlier today, after their masters had their duel and just before they rushed towards the office.

"Master has different types of silence, happy, sad, angry or even pensive. But when he is troubled by something he just looks up or down and stays like that until coming to a conclusion. Thought many times he never does" The female gunner had told her.

Thinking of this, she came to a decision and called him.

"E- emm I don't know what's troubling you Wallaquia-sama, but everything will be fine!"

He only moved his eyes towards her while keeping his head up, he saw her hopeful face and the double thumbs up she was giving him; and just though one thing.

 _Meh, whatever_

He looked down with a smile-more genuine this time- and said: "You want to hear a story about your master?"

* * *

After their visit to the Brothel, PuriPuriLilith, Enges Munra and Venedict decided to head to their next destinations: The Chapel of Many and All, and the Herbalist´s Buffet.

They followed the path around the right side of the Colosseum until they reached the one leading to the entrance. From here they could see both of their objectives.

"So, what do you say, Engi, should we split to do this faster?" Lilith asked in a playfully pleading voice

"And what about our security?" Asked him, in a bit of a sarcastic tone, knowing what she would likely say.

"But-" She pouted "You saw how it was back at the brothel, right? And those who entered the office a while ago. None of them are hostile!"

Venedict, confused as to the reason his lady or Enges Munra-sama would doubt his loyalty- or any of his fellow creation´s- decided to speak up.

"My lords, Why is it that your trust in us has been compromised? I understand that you must have your reasons, but i would like to ask you why" The priest asked in an apologetic tone.

Lilith shifted uncomfortably a little, trying to come up with an answer. When she did, she moved her hands in a way that indicated another "Great" speech was coming. Seeing this, Munra softly put his hand on her shoulder to tell her to stop, answering himself the question.

"Venedict" He said, grabbing his attention "We have not been completely well since our, shall we say, confrontation; we are currently facing an extremely strange and unknown situation, and thus we are simply making sure everything is in order" He told him as he got in front of him.

"It is not that we don't trust you. We are simply, as the masters of the great market, not taking any risks; for the good of our family" _Was that too much?_ "So I would like to ask of you to remain silent about this very small shred of suspicion, at least until we have finished" He extended his hand.

To his surprise, the priest looked at him with a sense of deep understanding in his eyes, and simply shook his hand and nodded "Understood, I see the great insight of our lords. Forgive me of speaking without knowing!"

 _Well that was easy._ The Ent simply shrugged internally "So Lilith, about what you said a moment ago." He finished the handshake and turned towards her "Alright, I´ll head to the Buffet, and you two can go to the Chapel."

"Alright!" Lilith happily agreed, grabbing Venedict´s hand and running towards the chapel. After watching the display and sighing, Munra too went to his destination.

* * *

The Chapel of Many and All –Lilith quickly discovered- was quite the uneventful place to explore. Everything was where it should be: The benches, the altar, the red tapestries over the white walls, the chandeliers in the ceiling, and everything else. The only Npc assigned here was one of her two personal creations, Venedict –The other one been the recently visited Lorelei- And she had already interacted a lot with him so she didn't need to ask him much.

However, this was mostly to be expected, and so she decided to head to her next destination: The library.

Though it sounded like a completely unrelated place, –Perhaps opposing in nature, even- The library was located in the first underground level, directly below the chapel; connected by a staircase in the back room, where a few decorative items were stored.

Going through the door behind the altar they reached this room, and descended the wooden spiral stair.

Upon reaching the bottom, they found themselves in the middle of a wide room with a tall ceiling. The only pillar supporting the ceiling seemed to be the central part of the spiral they just came from.

Surrounding the stairs in a square, a few meters away, were various bookshelves, and it was easy to see that there where many more rows behind those in sight.

After getting close to one of the bookshelves, and when Lilith was taking out one book, a hooded figure approached them. It was wearing a long black robe, with purple decorations on the borders. It was slightly opened in the front, revealing what seemed to be the body of a regular Caucasian human.

Except, Lilith new better. This was Der Verwandelnde, the NPC in charge of the custody of the library. He was a doppelganger, which meant he could take almost any shape and form. If she remembered correctly, his creator – Who was quite the Lovecraftian fan- made his personality to be that of a silent caretaker who enjoyed reading, he would often transform in the creatures found in books for combating invaders, or scaring the unwelcome visitor.

"Hello there, Verwan" She greeted him in a cheery tone. _Oh, will he get angry if I use the nickname we gave him? His name is too much of a hassle to pronounce…_

The hooded man seemed to recognize her, upon which he took off his hood and approached her. His brown hair was really short, and his dark eyes seemed to possess deep knowledge he seemed way too young to have. "Hello Ms. Lilith, Priest Venedict." He gave a small bow to her. "In what can I assist you today, will you be depositing a new scripture, or taking previous ones from the shelves?" He readily asked her.

 _He seems to be quite friendly with me, I wonder if it's because I spent a lot of time organizing my scrolls and writings here? Now that I think about it I did use to talk to him from time to time to staff of boredom._

"No, actually, I had a question to ask you. Has anything strange happened around here recently?"

"Strange? Well, besides you i do not see much movement down here" He paused for a moment. A brief flash of doubt shone in his eyes, noticed only by Venedict "Excuse me for going off the topic, Ms. Lilith but I would like to ask, where did master jackal go ?"

 _He is asking for Jackal, his creator? What should I tell him? None of the others asked for the members that had already stopped showing._ Lilith was panicking and didn't know how to answer. She stayed silent for a moment, before answering in a low voice.

"Your creator… he, alongside many of our other companions, had stopped coming here quite a while back, before even the last of our clientele vanished. We haven't seen him in a long time"

Verwan seemed visibly confused at her explanation "Yes, that i understand, but…" Something seemed to click inside his head as he paused, and Venedict once again took note of this.

 _He is hiding something. He appears to be completely friendly towards my lady, but there seems to be something more. Perhaps the Lords caution was well warranted. I will have to keep an eye out for him._ Venedict was frowning as he contemplated this, but seeing his mistress´s discouraged state after talking about _those who left_ , he decided to leave the matter for later.

After feeling downcast for a bit more, Lilith recomposed herself "Anyway, I guess I should continue. If there has been nothing strange, can you tell me how your work has been?"

At this he quickly replied "There is not much to say about that either. Like I said, movement down here is rather rare, since my work is simply organizing the new scriptures, which none have arrived recently; and to keep this place clean and protected, which I do meticulously everyday"

"Hum, I see. Thanks for the information" She sighed "Well, if anything out of the ordinary happens, you contact me, yes? We are currently facing an unprecedented and unknown situation, so we are just making sure everything is okay"

"Understood, Ms. Lilith" He said with a serious tone while nodding his head.

"Okay, that will be all, see you later!" She exclaimed, regaining a bit of her cheeriness "Come Venedict, we better start heading towards the Colosseum as Shinsekai said"

"Alright my lady" He bowed to her and as she walked ahead, he gave one last glare charged with suspicion towards the library´s caretaker, which didn't go unnoticed.

After that, they started their ascent through the stairs and exited the chapel, heading towards the giant sandstone building in the center of the guild.

* * *

Right after peacemaker finished getting everything ready, she and Hest finally reached the other side of the walls surrounding the base. As they walked, Hest could spot Saphira running towards him.

"Master! Master! Wallaquia-sama told me a lot of things!"

As he expected, she jumped and while he had readied for impact, it was still a futile attempt at protecting his rib cage, _at least I didn't fall to the ground this time._

"Hooo? What did he tell you?" the ranger said while looking suspiciously at Wallaquia.

"He told me about this time when you were young and you called a pretty lady a "Hoe" and she slapped you! He said it was a great battle afterwards! By the way, what does "Hoe" mean?"

 _You motherfucker…._

Hest could see him standing passively to the side, but he knew the guy enough to know that he was internally laughing his ass off.

"Emmmm, you tell a woman that she's a hoe when…. Um, you wish to battle to the death with her" He said the first thing that came to mind. _Not exactly right but not far from the truth._

"Hum? A challenge? Then you won, right master?!"

It was difficult to look at Saphira in the eyes with the look of innocence she was giving. _Forgive me, Saphira, but I will have to lie to protect your innocence!_

With a grand pose and the best shit eating grin He could muster Hest continued to lie through his teeth.

"Of course I won! Who the hell do you think I am!?"

"Awesome!" She happily exclaimed while clapping.

While watching the spectacle from the side, Wallaquia could feel peacemaker stare at him with a small smile.

"Is there something on my face?"

"No master"

"Then could you tell me what's wrong?"

Then as if avoiding his stare, she said with the most happiness in her voice that he had heard since coming here.

"I am just so happy that all of you could stay here, master" She expressed with a small smile.

Wallaquia could feel the sincerity in her voice, and he could not help but think how pretty she looked at that moment. _It has to be crime to be that cute in some places…._

Slowly, he put my hand on her head and started petting her.

"Ma- master?" _What did I do that deserved this reward?_

She looked embarrassed but at the same time happy at the unexpected show of affection.

"I just felt like I had to give you something, since you helped put everything in place. Or are you perhaps complaining and want something else?"

I told her while taking my hand from her head but she took a step to keep it there.

"No! This will more than suffice master!"

While watching her face of delight, the gunner started thinking about their next course of action.

 _Am I exaggerating? They look genuinely happy that we are here, and what's more; they took our orders with the utmost respect._

Taking his hand from her head and avoiding the disappointed look she was giving, he walked up to the still posing ranger.

"Now that everything is in order, should we go meet with everyone?"

"Yeah, we already took too much time setting everything up. By the way how does everything work?"

I took the last item in the bag and threw it away

"The [Small Bag of Gadgets] comes with this pad. The cameras and sensors work almost exactly like the [Mirror of Remote Viewing] but fixed in place. There are better methods, but this should work for now"

While changing from camera to camera in the pad, he made sure that everything was in order before they simply leapt the tall walls, and headed towards the Colosseum.

* * *

After parting ways with Lilith, Munra headed for the building opposite to the chapel, in the other side of the road leading to the Colosseum. It was made of dark wood, and beautifully adorned with gold trims around the door and the fine glass windows, giving it an elegant but not extravagant look. This place was known as the Herbalist´s Buffet, The building in which Munra conducted his business in the guild: selling food´s and potions.

 _I guess this is the last place for me to check out._

Touching the smooth wood of the door he stopped himself from opening it.

 _Those three are being way too emotional about every NPC they encounter. I know they are technically our children but we cannot be blinded, Wallaquia at least seems unconvinced, I should talk to him later._

Finally stepping inside the building, the first thing that received him was the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread, and the huge orc beside the door, looking at him in surprise

"Boss! Welcome back, it is a pleasure to see you so soon" The bulky man exclaimed

Almost as tall as the Ent was Korg´bag. _If memory serves right, he was described in his settings to be "Really well-mannered orc that served as one of the waiters of the buffet" As with Lorelei, the other NPC´s seem to behave as if they've had always been sentient. And "So soon"? he might be referring to when I came to say goodbye to Johan before…_

"Hello Korg, good afternoon. Could you please gather everyone? I would like to talk with them as soon as possible" He politely asked.

"Of course boss" The orc exclaimed, making a perfect bow towards the Ent, and then headed towards the kitchen.

 _Boss? Not professor? Why do they refer to me differently here?_

While he pondered, he was caught off guard by the voice that came from below _"_ Ah, boss, what a sight for sore eyes, it feels like an eternity since I last saw you"

Looking for the gruff but low voice, The alchemist saw the small frame of a gnome, with a monocle and a very fine looking mustache, holding a cup of what appears to be tea in his hand.

 _Ah, Gnorman. The "Normal Gnome" quite the pun, I must say. I found myself liking the little man when DiscoSTAR designed him, and he sounds every ounce as elegant as he had described._

Slightly invigorated by the good memory of one of his old guild mates, Munra replied to him in a more cheerful tone than usual "Greetings Gnorman, I apologize for not seeing you there"

"It is of not great importance boss, my height is not precisely my forte" The tiny man laughed.

Jumping up to the closest table, he pulled a bigger cup of tea from behind his back and put it on the table, on the side closest to the Ent.

"I was hoping that you could join me for a cup of tea?" he asked.

After a brief second of doubting, he decided to agree to keep a normal appearance. "Yes, thank you. That would be nice"

Upon examining the liquid, Munra instinctively knew that there were no Ill effects hidden on the beverage. _Is this the effect of passive the passive skill [Potion Expert]?_ Leaving that for latter, he simply took the cup and sniffed it, with this the smell of cinnamon touched his nostrils, and he started sipping it.

Giving a relaxed sigh He looked down at Gnorman, who seemed to be expecting to hear his opinion.

Just enjoying the wonderful taste he told him "Really delicious Gnorman, as expected of you"

Seeming proud of himself and standing as tall as he could, he responded with "Most appreciated" and hopped off the table and walked towards the counter where Korg had assembled the rest of the staff.

"Excuse our tardiness boss, here are all of us except for Johan, who went to check on you a while ago"

From left to right were the Kitsune known as Mary doe -Wallaquia had argued it was a good name for a bartender- she was in charge of the bar at the other side of the dining area. Next to her was Jeanne, an aasimar with a beauty much like an angel but with a character and the temperament of a fighting bull, She was the other waitress of the buffet. To her right was the Korg who just got himself in the line, and the last to the right was Gnorman, Standing proudly as the Assistant chef, only second in authority to Johan –The second head chef- And Enges Munra, the head chef himself.

Having them lined up, he started talking "I thank you for coming here I was hoping-" But he was quickly interrupted by a loud noise. Looking towards the entrance, they saw Johan with a furious expression. He was without his shirt or lab coat, and had red lipstick all around his chest and torso.

"YOU!" he exclaimed at his creator.

"Me" he replied with in a neutral voice.

 _That expression just now was gold._

"Why did you leave me there teacher! I had to waste my paralysis and fog potions; and almost every trick I had on me so that I could escape! I had to jump through the freaking window of the second floor! And I am not going back there!" He exclaimed, earning a little chuckle from the two female workers.

"Johan, Johan" Munra said in a condescending tone while shaking his head.

 _Perhaps I myself am getting over emotional about this, too…_

He got close to him and grasped his shoulders, and talked almost like a man giving an important lesson to his son. "You must understand that everything I do is for your growth as a researcher. And as my student and given the present situation, I thought this would make for quite the important lesson"

Johan now wasn't looking directly at him, but slightly to the side. However he sounded almost equally annoyed and defiant as before. "Then what is there to learn from abandoning me in a brothel to my luck, teacher?"

With a wide grin on his face, the researcher got close to his pupil and said in a low voice so that only he could hear him. "Well for one boy, to never show your Innocence in Lilith´s presence again. Next time she may want to take it upon herself, so you should be prepared"

 _Hahaha, I might be having a little too much fun with this, but still it is a valuable lesson for him. The constant teasing of that girl at the beginning made even this old man blush. If now she can actually do the things she said…_ He shuddered at the thought.

Johan now looked almost shocked, many possible scenarios playing in his head. He gulped and tried to regain his composure. "Duly noted professor"

"Now go to your room and rest for the day boy. I shall have a meeting with the other Businessmen after I am done here"

"Yes professor" He exclaimed, as he walked past the lined up workers and entered the kitchen, in route towards his room.

Now turning towards the rest, Munra saw that all of them had varying levels of amusement on their faces.

"As I was saying, I have a couple of questions that I would like that you answer"

Taking a seat on one table, the Ent motioned for the workers to do the same.

"First of all, who is in charge of this place as a whole?"

All of them looking pensive, but it was Mary who responded with a lazy but serious tone.

"Master might have been the one to create me, but since I work here, you are my boss, professor"

"Yes, that is certainly the sentiment that we all who work at the herbalist buffet share" Gnorman declared with a proud stance. "And I believe that holds true for all of the other working areas"

 _I see, that makes me feel relieved I suppose. And it casts an interesting light about how they see their command chains._ "Second, I would like to know how we are in our current food storages"

"We are currently more than capable to manage for the moment, but with the recent lack of trade it seems that we might need to consider other alternatives for procuring supplies" Jeanne responded with a finger towards her chin.

"Besides that" Korg raised his voice "There is also the situation of our water and liquid supplies, which are in worse conditions. The current capacity can last us for up to 20 days maximum"

"I see…..I shall take this to the others, we certainly need to solve these issues with haste. Expect further instructions in about two hours" the Ent said while standing up. "Now I shall take my leave. See you soon" as he went through the door his employees waved goodbye at him and returned to work.

 _I have to discuss this immediately with the others. Let's hope everyone is done_

With that, he made his way towards the Colosseum.

* * *

The two underground levels of the great market where actually part of the original dungeon that had become the guild base.

Originally it was a low level mine containing both iron and so called rare rocks –Simply put, things like clay, sandstone and chalk- which housed a few minions and a boss monster. The optimal level to clear the dungeon was around 17, extremely low given the maximum level was 100.

After the guild leader had found this low level, ignored dungeon really far away from the center of the world, he could not resist the chance and cleared it all by himself. After that he kept the place a secret –Easy, given even if someone were to encounter it, they would likely just ignore it entirely- until he gathered enough members to form a clan and subsequently a guild.

Of course, they had remodeled and expanded the two floors of the dungeon by creating a variety of rooms and spaces to suit the guild`s needs; one of which was the Treasury room that the group led by Shinsekai Kami and Loxen had as their current destination.

One problem–or more exactly, mild annoyance- that they encountered when they entered the first underground floor, was that the original monsters from the dungeon had somehow respawned, and were actively hostile.

At first the golem and dragon were internally scared to see a raging gobbling charging towards them, but after a sword shattering against Loxen´s stone skin, and an arrow just bouncing of the Reptilian´s face; the initial shock of fear became one of awe, as the three girls accompanying them –having taken the assault as an insult to they´re masters- quickly proceeded to exterminate with ease the group of 12 goblins they had encountered.

Caesar beheaded one and slashed right through two more, a flurry of arrows covered in flame from iris pierced five of the goblin´s hearts; and with a quick chant from eve, a surge of flame incinerated the remaining 4 who tried to escape.

The two players shared a look and a smirk of amusement as they shared the same thought: _These girls are STRONG._ And they both instinctively understood that, given they now had they´re avatars as bodies; they were likely to hold an equal or greater power.

From the underground entrance of the silent office, they had turned right once, which meant they had to turn right two more times, since the treasure room was located behind the office, connected by a roundabout path instead of directly.

" _Can't make it that easy!"_ the member who had been in charge of designing the blueprints for the base once said with booming energy. _EatzaWorld_ _really liked the base designing and building aspect of the game… he really outdid himself with this one._

As Loxen was admiring the blue and grey patterns of the bricks in the walls –which would have been much harder to admire, if not for the [Perpetual Light] shining every few meters- Shinsekai was the first to go around the corner.

"More goblings!" he exclaimed in a low voice, signaling towards his companions that they don't move so as to not be seen.

"Master, you need not worry; the mere swing of my sword shall bring those pest´s down" Caesar gallantly proclaimed, as she tried to step forward. However, the guild master stopped her. She looked at him with a hint of confusion in her eyes.

"Emm, well…" He stuttered a bit as he was confronted with those marvelous blue eyes…. _Man, focus!_ "Ehem, Loxen and I were planning on confirming something" He flashed a glance at the golem, who could not react in time to the ball thrown his way, as he was taken by surprise. Seeing the slow reaction of his friend, the dragon kin had no choice but to continue by himself.

"That is to say, we wish to assess the condition of our strength, since we depleted our energy in our mighty confrontation with the unknown forces!" _…Yeah, right. I just think it's a priority to find out if we have the same power as in the game. Please forgive this little lie, Caesar. But I think we have to keep our appearances here._

"Oh, so that's what you meant, why didn't you say so directly?" Loxen obliviously exclaimed as he understood. The guild master wanted to facepalm really hard at that moment. "So smashing a few goblins? Yeah, after seeing how strong these girls are, I know we will be safe even if we get in danger" At this Caesar gave a proud smile, and the two fire users blushed slightly.

 _Quite the unaware lady killer, aren't you my friend?_ He shaked his head. "Exactly, so let us engage them with haste. I take the sixe to the left and you the four to the right?" It was a bit more serious voice, and it wasn't so much a question as it was an order.

Now it was Loxen´s turn to smirk "Yes, understood. Boss is the defender of the great market, after all; so following you in battle is a given!" He screamed, to call the goblins attention as they rushed forward.

Too late into the charge did shinsekai realize that he still was wearing his business suit instead of his combat gear, nor did he have his weapons equipped. _Oh man, well too late now!_ As he approached the first gobbling, he struck a pose reminiscent of a boxer but with a much lower posture.

Imitating the days of his youth, he jumped in the last step and released the hook´s full force into the goblin´s lower jaw. A Loud cracking noise was heard, and the goblins dead body was flung to the end of the hallway.

Meanwhile loxen was doing the same. Albeit since he was more specialized as a crafter, he still had a big combat ability compared to that of a lower level monster: The golem classes had powerful fist attacks even if they were slow, and what's more; his two levels of [Magma Golem] gave him an added fire damage bonus.

He just smashed two of the goblins with his fist as he arrived, their charred and broken skulls splattering blood on the floor. _Well, that's gross. In the game it never was this bloody._

The dragon kin gave two fast punches, with which two more goblins were sent flailing helplessly. _Physical attacks seem ok; we are almost too strong I'd say._ As he contemplated their strength, he pondered. _What about skills and magic's?_

As he thought this, he paused. Concentrating, he tried to find something within himself. To his surprise, he reached what he was looking for with extreme ease, almost as if it had always been part of him. Smirking, he exclaimed "[Dragon Lightning]!" This was a low level dragon skill learned by those with the [Elemental Dragon: Lightning] racial class.

A huge surge of electricity started flowing through his hands., and admiring the shining blueish sparks, he punched one of the remaining goblins -who were now trying to flee- and the strike electrocuted him, and the discharge spread to the nearest goblin; leaving both of them lying in the ground, their muscles still twitching from the shocks.

Looking at the results, he tried next a more powerful skill: "[Ancient Dragon´s Thunder]!" This was an AoE skill that did lighting damage to all surrounding enemies; it also had the capacity to stun if they had low lighting resistance. After activating it, a huge amount of electricity accumulated in his body, before releasing as a storm of lighting, charring all of the remaining gobbling.

Needless to say, Loxen was also caught in the blast.

Feeling elated by the power, his triumph was cut short as he saw his friend sitting in the ground, with parts of his stone skin chipped away, and breathing more heavily than before. "My friend!" he rushed to his side. "I am sorry, are you alright?!" he asked with great worry in his voice.

"… Yeah, I didn't feel that much pain -must be the elemental resistances- but I can tell you did some damage" he answered as his friend helped him stand up.

"But that was strange, aren't we guild mates? Why would friendly fire be on?"

"Same as with the blood I think. Not everything is exactly like the game, which only tells us we should be extremely careful. I'm just glad the girls were at a safe distance."

At the mention of their companions, and the thought of they –of Caesar- getting hurt because of him made him go pale, as the realization that that's exactly what could have happened dawned on him.

Not too long after the three girls had come rushing to them, al expressing worry for their hurt master. Iris and Eve all the more so.

"I'm fine, I'm fine" he waved a hand to them with a smile.

"What was it that happened, Shinsekai-sama?" Iris asked with a hint of anger in her voice.

Now seeing his leader speechless, he decided to cover for him this time "Iris, please don't get angry, it was an accident." He got between them so that she couldn't glare at the scaly man. "We are still… drained from our previous fight, as he explained. It was just the bad luck of me not dodging in time and him not correctly channeling his energy due to both of us being still a little exhausted"

"I am truly sorry, Iris!" the guild master had stepped forward from behind his friend and was now deeply vowing. "Due to my carelessness my dear friend and your master got hurt, I swear I will never bring harm to my companions again" He exclaimed with closed eyes, expecting her response.

Iris looked at him a little surprised. Honestly, in her mind the guild master had to be a more self-centered, cold and greedy person; as he was the founder and protector of a great business. Now, however, she saw a man truly regretting having hurt his dear friend. She looked at eve who nodded at her. "It is alright, Shinsekai-sama, I am also sorry for my previous hostility" she said in a serious albeit shy tone.

"It's alright." He told her with a weak smile. It was all the showman could muster, still feeling guilty.

Like this, they turned the last corner to the right, and after walking a little bit they stood in front of the treasury`s big doors.

Being around 3 meters tall, the heavy doors where made out of a brightly polished bronze, with carvings representing different types of wealth: One had a horn full of fruits of gold and silver, another had depictions of rings and crowns with actual jewels encrusted. And on top of them all, visions of books and scrolls, with text engraved that popped out like a golden hologram as they approached. It read "Knowledge is Power and Power is Wealth"

"Only when wielded by the great business men" Both players finished the rhyme, which was of course the password to enter the treasury. After hearing their voices, the doors shook and slowly opened.

"Well, this should be a sight to behold, I think" Said Loxen, a little expectant.

"I agree, but we shall see. Everyone, let's go in"

And with affirmative nodes, the five of them passed through the beautifully decorated doors.


	3. Of trophies, explorers and missing girls

Hello people Demosx and Just a Stray Cat here.

First and foremost we feel the immense need to extend our apologies to everyone who expected this chapter more than 7 freaking months.

We live in Venezuela, so if you know anything about that; yeah. "IRL stuff" really isn't enough describe our situation.

But it still falls completely on our hands that we couldn't find the time to properly finish what we had started; with a hard point of college and starting a job at home.

So anyway, if anyone is still interested in the story of the six merchants of the bifrost; we are pleased to tell you that we will come back to write more frequently.

Thanks to all of you for your patience and support! With that behind, onto the story.

* * *

As the group of five went through the ornate doors, an incredible sight appeared: in the gigantic room, at least as wide as the central area of the Colosseum, were enormous piles of shining gold coins.

Mixed with all the golden were a variety of items off all kinds, such as weapons, armor, wands, jewels, and many other luxurious items.

For as unorganized as the piles themselves were, a path of red carpet cleanly divided all of them in a grid. The two guild mates and their companions headed straight to the center of the room, where they knew the NPC in charge of the treasury should be stationed.

As they walked, a desk came into vision. It was finely crafted, elegant in its golden trim and lack of complex engravings. Behind it were a leather chair and five tall file cabinets, acting as a wall of sorts.

However, the man they were expecting was nowhere in sight.

"Huh, where is he?" the golem wondered as they got closer "Shouldn't that vampire be standing in there?"

"Well yeah, it's not like we moved him, so most likely he moved on his own after…" He quickly glanced at the three girls accompanying them, at which they gave a confused smile "After what happened to us. Basing us in the personality that Hest gave him, hum…" Pondering for a moment, he quickened his pace "Wait a moment, I have a hunch".

As Loxen hurried to his side, The dragon kin was leaning over the desk to see behind it. "Ha! As expected!".

When the golem reached him and circled the desk to look behind it, he was rendered speechless. Had he still being human, a big vein would be popping in his forehead. Instead, the molten rock beneath his surface could be seen burning brighter through the cracks in his skin. "He… is asleep?" he seethed a breath.

Indeed, there in the floor was a sleeping man, curled up in a light grey blanket. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He wore purple sweatpants with a plain white shirt with the text "Bloody Lovy" In cursive red letters.

His brown hair and thin mustache were elegantly combed, despite sometimes brushing them against the sheets. His skin color was a tad pale, but overall he could be described as handsome.

"It would seem so" the guild master exclaimed.

"So, what should we do about him? We can't wait until he wakes up on his own"

However, before Shinsekai could begin to answer, he heard a loud smacking sound, followed by the pained scream of a man. When they turned around, they could see Caesar lifting the man to his feet by the collar of his shirt. "Why did you do that, you THOT?!" he screamed at her

Blushing at what she could only identify as an insult, she answered in a louder voice "Your masters are visiting! How can you show them such a disrespectful sight?!" She was about to punch him again, but Shinsekai interfered.

"Well well that's enough you two" He stood between the two of them and faced Caesar "It's alright dear, we ́ll handle it from here."

 _Well, I better let boss calm Caesar down. I should hurry to get what we need out of this guy, everyone else has already finished._ As Loxen approached the man, he called him "Azkr, we have come to you now with a few questions we would like to ask you"

Upon seeing just who were the two men standing before him, he gulped and quickly straightened his posture, and with a flash of light his clothes changed to a heavy purple armor with white gold trims. The shoulders, belt and boots of his armor were decorated with designs of bat wings and fangs.

This man, Azkr Zak´Nizzt, Was the NPC in charge of the treasury, a Vampire Lord created by Hest.

Loxen could somewhat understand his recent behavior as part of the settings Hest gave him, after all he had described him as "A Fallen Paladin that wandered the world until he got bored! He then started working for us. Also, he is a very lazy Hikikomori".

"Yes my lords, anything! Would you like to know about the current inventory of goods? Or the total currency in our vaults? I can prepare a chart of incomes and expenses for you! Although there has not been much movement as of lately but still!.." Before he could continue his fast and barely understandable rant, Loxen held a hand up to his face.

"Wait, Hold up. First, slower yes? Thank you." He sighed, and the vampire seemed to calm down a little. "Second, Yes, I would very much appreciate that which you just offered. But we didn't come here for that. We would like to ask if you have seen or detected anything strange on the base?"

"Strange? No sir,just me and the treasure here, as always. Outside, I haven't detected anything out of the ordinary. No, perhaps a slight lowering of the temperature?" He half mumbled, as if just now considering it.

 _Makes sense, we_ did _come from a dessert._ The golem rationalized.

"Aside from that, nothing comes to mind as out of place"

As he finished speaking, the guild master came to them, seemingly having just finished calming Caesar down.

"I understand. Well, seems like all the reports are the same, nobody detected the change itself." The Blacksmith breathed a sigh "Now what, boss?"

"Well, it just occurred to me but, isn't there something very dangerous that we casually forgot?" as he said this, Loxen slowly came to understand what he meant.

"We need to check the trophy room…" He gulped "If all the NPC ́s are… 'Here', then that means…" A flash of terror crossed both their faces.

"Azkr!" Shinsekai exclaimed.

"Yes, boss!"

"We will go into the trophy room. In the meantime do prepare what we asked of you. However, should we not be back in half an hour, you shall contact everyone else, got it?"

The urgency in his Boss ́s voice seemed to get to the vampire, as his skin turned even paler than normal. Who quickly agreed to his orders.

The three girls accompanying them had similarly preoccupied expressions, until Eve finally asked "Master Loxen, what is it that worries you?"

He looked at her small form and relaxed just a little, and gave her a soft smile.

"Hopefully it won't be trouble, but we have to check on… our friend down there"

The girls seemed to understand who their master meant, but the worry was now mostly replaced by confusion.

"Ah, it's nothing, but it could be dangerous, so we would like you to stay here. If too much time passes you may come with more people to help us" _If_ he _has become hostile like those goblins…_

Seeing that there was no room for discussion, the girls just nodded. They would stay behind and besides, their masters were very strong, so there was little to no chance they would be in danger.

"Alright then, let us go. We should use the rings" said the guild master, and with a nod of agreement from the golem, both of them looked at the ring in their right index finger. It was the Guild Ring, its silver body and green gem gleamed beautifully. "If most things are like in… like before, this should be able to take us there" He added in a whisper so that only his stony friend could hear, after which he gave a nod.

Focusing on the ring, they visualized the entrance to the trophy room, and with a flash of light they were taken there.

It was a room with walls of polished stone illuminated by two fires in pillars at each side of the room. Small in width and length, only large in height to accommodate to the enormous doors that were placed in one of its sides. The Black Iron doors were even more heavily decorated than those of the treasure room, except that this had a multitude of 'scenes' integrated into a whole picture.

There were two warriors fighting monsters, a beautiful woman in front of a beast, a city and its enormous walls, two men in a boat, one of them sleeping; a serpent sneaking away from its skin with a plant in its mouth, and many other depictions decorated with colored metal trims and gemstones adorned the door.

To get in, they had to use a password. However, it was different than the treasury. This place should only allow Guild members, and as such, the gate wouldn't only read a poem as a password, but had integrated voice recognition. If either condition fails, the self-defense system (Consisting of teleporting all combat NPC inside the guild to this area) would trigger.

Standing in front of the gate, both of them began at the same time.

"Surpassing all other kings, He who saw the abyss.

A man of great power, and even greater greed.

Honoring brotherhood, accomplished many feats.

Accumulated many riches, sought eternal life,

But through his struggles learnt: even a god is a man"

After they finished reciting the short poem, a brief moment of deafening silence followed while the black gates opened, which made the two of them look at each other

Passing through the door, they entered the trophy room. It was almost in complete darkness and silence. A few silhouettes ranging from small to enormous could be barely seen at varying distances. Only in the center of the room a beam of light illuminated a weapon held in a marble pedestal. It was a scimitar, its blade was of a metal between pale green and cyan, and its handle was golden.

Both men recognized the item for what it was: Their guild weapon. While not the most powerful of its kind, and by no means the strongest weapon in the guild; it still held very special meaning to all of them. However, it was not for this item that they were here.

After sharing one final glance, in which the dragon kin nodded to the golem, the latter took a step towards the darkness, past the weapon, and gave a command hesitantly: "Behi, Show Yourself!"

After a second of silence, a light seemed to turn on various meters above, however all that could be seen was still blackness. Soon however, something happened that froze them in place. Several head sized eyes opened in the blackness, dark crimson in color.

The creature shuffled, and started moving towards them. Now a bit more illuminated from the light that came through the doors, its four-legged shape could be distinguished, its size somewhere around a normal house. Small azure sparks and flames could now be seen leaking out of its body. As all eyes focused on Loxen, it stopped In front of him.

Frozen in fear, the red glow from beneath the golem ́s skin seemed to diminish in brightness. He could only look up and stutter: "…Behi?"

After which the creature made a guttural sound, as a flat line in the black fur opened into a large mouth, filled with a mixture of giant canine and sharp looking teeth. It's incredibly long tongue slid out and…

Started licking him furiously, animatedly panting as it did so.

All tension left the smith's body, and the glow beneath his skin returned even brighter. "Behi!" he exclaimed, as he jumped and hugged the enormous beast.

The guild leader was still standing in the same spot, not out of fear, but out of stupor. After a while, he asked "What in the ever loving FUCK are you doing!?" as he walked over to them.

Loxen answered, still hugging and being moved around by the playful beast: "He is just as I had imagined him! A giant, horrifying, nightmare-inducing fur ball of love!"

The leader gave a heavy sigh, as his companion laughed very hard. _Well, it's not that surprising. He_ Did _always love that giant thing._ The former thought, as he contemplated the Behemoth that had taken the whole guild to tame. _However, he hasn't become hostile like the re-spawned goblins. Perhaps because he was registered as 'ours'?_

"Anyway, we should check everything here just in case" he said as he went towards the guild weapon, and took it off its resting place. "Now what was the command for lights again… Oh, yeah!" in his normal demeanor he struck a pose towards the darkness "Shine, my Inner Light!" after which the room became decently illuminated.

"Wasn't it just 'Shine'?" the golem asked with a smirk on his face.

"Well, maybe, but a showman's job is a constant one," he replied. "Besides, it was disco star ́s idea to do it this way"

After sharing a fond memory of their mutual friend and guild mate, they started glancing around, taking a mental inventory of the items in there. "The R-R-Arch is still there" the dragon kin signaled a cubic-ish gray metallic structure at the back of the room "as well as the World Item" he pointed to a katana sword in a similar pedestal than the guild weapon.

"The bestiary is ok…" loxen said looking over a book in one of the stone pillars. "…The philosopher ́s stone, Mark XXVII too…" as he tapped the glass container inside which floated a roughly cut red gemstone.

"…Behi and the guild weapon are clearly ok, so I think we are done here" he ended.

"In that case, we better hurry back. I believe everyone else is finished at this point"

"True. Well, I think I need to get going friend" he sadly patted Behi "I promise I will come back to play sometime"

As he did so, the beast made a sad sound, but went back to its designated place.

"Well then, let's get going" and after closing the giant doors, they used their rings to return to their partners.

* * *

After returning from the trophy room, both of them had informed azkr and the girls that everything was in order; after which they hurried to the Colosseum.

Now entering the podium, they could see that everyone else was already present.

"Hello there, took you long enough!" Hest said with a cocky smile on his face.

"Yes, you could have hurried a little" Munra agreed.

"Well, well my friends. We are now here, and we had to deal with quite a few surprises on the way" Shinsekai explained

"I hugged behi" Loxen added in a matter-of-fact way.

A general look of confusion appeared on the other four player ́s faces, to which the guild leader quickly said "We went to the trophy room, and he was well and good"

"He was a giant nightmare inducing fur ball of love" again with the matter-of-fact tone, albeit with a big smile on his face.

"Yes. We will explain in turn. Anyway" he looked at each of them. "How did things go on your end?"

"The perimeter is safe enough for now" Hest explained "-a bunch of tall rocks and simple plants in quite a good radius. There is an apparent lack of animal life, which somewhat worries me, but I can't say for sure until we explore further"

"We also placed sensors and cameras around the guild, so we should be alerted of any movement near us" concluded Wallaquia.

"Lilith and I visited quite a few places. We first went together to the brothel…" Munra started, before being cut off by an enthusiastic comment from Lillith.

"It was as… _colorful._.. as one would expect it to be" The smile on her face was very wide. "Johan here can tell you that, right little lamb?"

At the mention of his name , Johan ́s face slightly colored red in shame, before switching to a deeper crimson of anger. He scoffed, and turned his gaze away from her. This earned a mischievous grin from the nun and a giggle from some of the girls present.

"Yes, it sure was… what one would expect, really" Munra added with a slightly tired voice "Anyway, Lorelei was a charming host and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. After that we separated to be done quicker. I went to the buffet. The Staff was jovial to see me, and didn't notice anything either" He gave a smile as he remembered the encounter with his 'staff'. "They did, however, warn me that our stockpiled food and water can last for around 20 days, so we need to find a way to deal with that as soon as possible" He added with a more serious expression.

"I see, we will need to make it one of our first priorities" The guild master said "Please, continue"

"Meanwhile, I took Simon with me to the church; which was unsurprisingly boring considering that _we_ are the ones usually in there" She made a mock-exasperated face and gesture and continued "After that, we went down to check the library. Verwan was a rather interesting young man. Asked if we had seen Jackal, the poor thing." She made a sorrowful expression, and Simon decided this was a good time to express his previous concerns.

"Excuse me for talking out of place, my lords…" Simon paused, long enough for the guild master to nod at him to continue. "…but I would like to point out something that I noticed during the meeting my lady just described." After seeing he had everyone's attention, he proceeded "…der verwandelnde, to me he did seem to know something. I can't tell what, but he seemed strangely confused about my lady ́s explanation"

"Hum, thanks Simon, I'll make sure to look further into that" _If the first thing out of place has to do with that man… well, I am concerned._ The dragon kin thought.

"Yes lord, thanks for letting me express my concerns" to which he only nodded.

"Are you sure you ́re not just jealous I talked to him, my dear Simon?" the teasing tone in his mistress's voice didn't go unnoticed, but his cheeks flushed a bit anyway.

"My lady, I have not such a low self-restraint" he simply remarked, while closing his eyes.

"Yeah, if you say so" the smile never leaving her lips "Anyway, after that we just came here. I was the last one to arrive before you guys."

"Well, the five of us went to the first underground level and found out that the original goblins from the dungeon had re-spawned" At which the other four showed some concern, yet the NPC ́s didn't even react. "However, the girls thoroughly obliterated most of them, and after that Loxen and I wiped out the remaining pests" _That is to say, our combat ability is intact._ He hoped de meaning of his words reached his friends, and seeing the look in their eyes it seems they had.

"After that we entered the treasury" continued Loxen "Azkr was… quite a character" he trailed a bit off

"He dared sleep when the bosses where inspecting!" Caesar angrily exclaimed, obviously still infuriated with the poor mannerisms of the vampire. Iris and eve simply nodded solemnly. The other NPC ́s shared a look of anger and indignation that faded as Loxen resumed talking.

"Yeah, well, Hest made him that way so there is not much I can say" At which the ranger gave an awkward half-laugh as he avoided visual contact.

"Anyway, he just had noticed that the temperature had slightly lowered in the outside. But after talking to him, I actually remembered the trophy room existed, and we got worried about the potential…danger. However, we checked on Behi and he was, as I previously explained, a giant nightmare-inducing fur ball of love, and I hugged him"

After seeing the look Shinsekai gave him, he added "Ah, yes. And the other trophies were ok too I guess"

"So the giant dog can talk?" Hest asked.

"Don't be silly, of course he can ́t. He is a beast. A horribly fluffy beast" Loxen answered.

"It would seem someone found a renewed love for the spoils of our big adventure" Lilith remarked with a gentle smile.

"Yes. Everything was in perfect condition, and thus we came here." And with that their boss ended the round of reports.

"Now, I would like to announce to the whole guild our current state of affairs, so It would be very appreciated if you could give word to everyone else to report to the Colosseum in an hour" He said, addressing the NPC ́s, to which all of them answered with unanimous confirmations, after which they left; leaving the six guild members alone.

"Well, I guess this confirms it, right?" Hest asked.

"Whatever do you mean?" asked Munra in return

"We are staying. Like, actually managing the guild? Not trying to go back?"

"While it is too soon to think about the last part" Wallaquia commented. "It is a given we will take care of it, isn't that right?" To which everyone gave a quick nod of affirmation.

"Well, I ́m glad we all think the same." Shinsekai once again concluded "With that settled…" he turned to leave "Follow me, there is a show to prepare…"

And with that, the five of them followed him out of the podium.

* * *

In the center of the Colosseum a small stage had been raised, a mere stone platform to stand above ground level.

The previously empty seats were moderately filled with all of the NPC ́s of the guild, the creations of the six players calling out all of them and also staying seated at the first row.

In the stage, the remaining business men stood, all of them now in their formal work clothing:

PuriPuriLilith was wearing a dark grayish blue jacket, over a light blue buttoned shirt and well fitting dark blue pants with a pair of black high heels. Her hair was tied in a bun behind her head, and she adorned the top of her head with a big hat the same color of her jacket; with a big blue feather on one side.

Enges Munra was wearing an American black suit with a red tie under his lab coat, with a pair of dark brown shoes.

Loxen wore black pants and shoes, and a big white buttoned shirt with straps on each shoulder.

Wallaquia was wearing an Italian style black suit with a grey shirt underneath, and a blue tie tucked under the jacket with a black fedora.

Hest wore a similar suit to Wallaquia, but instead of a jacket, he wore a dark blue, sleeveless vest with a black striped tie.

Finally, Shinsekai Kami wore a grey coat over his white shirt and blue tie, with equally grey pants and luster black shoes.

The guild leader stood in front of the other five, microphone in hand.

"Hello and Good Day, Every Body!" With his salute, the crowd cheered. The smile on his face grew wider, filling elated.

"Today my beautiful audience, we, your beloved bosses and creators have a big announcement to give you" He paused, looking back at his companions only for a moment.

"About five hours ago, something very out of the ordinary took place. We were forced to fight an incredibly powerful foe, one such; that we ourselves could not quite comprehend its strength. We had to face this opponent for the sake of the market. We did not know if we would return from this fight, and thus we bid our farewells" He paused a moment to let the words sink into his audience, their restlessness growing by the second.

"However!" he loudly exclaimed. "We were, with our combined strength, able to vanquish this foe, albeit losing some of our strength due to exhaustion. We stood triumphant back home, where we had to face yet another situation: The _Whole_ market had been transported to a different location!"

"Some of you may have noticed, as we did. We went around to see if anyone had detected anything that could help us figure out our situation" by now realization seemed to dawn on many of the people in the crowd, mostly in those who had been 'inspected'.

"But, alas, after thoroughly searching, nothing could be discovered, except that The Grand Market of Bifrost remains intact and in perfect shape!" At this the crowd once again roared in cheers.

"It is for this reason that, without dwelling in the past, we have decided to strive for the future!" He made a small pause as he made a victorious pose to emphasize his words.

"We are to start new efforts to secure the safety and prosperity of our home in this new territory! We expect heavy workloads, and tight schedules, but through it all we will push forwards!" Yet another pose, pointing at the sky.

"And we are counting on each, and every single one of you! To aid, and support us by performing your jobs as outstandingly good, and even better than ever before! Together, we will create a brilliant future for all of us!"

And as he ended his speech, he stood; arms spread and face looking upwards, hoping that he had been able to captivate his audience and tell the story as they needed it to be. _God I was so excited I can't even tell if I was consistent with what we told them before…_

But upon seeing the standing ovation that he was receiving, even from the NPC ́s that had heard their explanation before; that fear vanished. Even his five companions were clapping behind him.

After the six of them bowed to the audience, they retreated through the back exit closest to the silent office. They waited until they were out of sight to speak.

"A Showman to the bone" The Ent told him with a chuckle.

"As expected of our leader" Lilith and Loxen said in unison.

"Well, with explanations out of the way," started Wallaquia "I think is a good time to summon a meeting. Even if we have decided to stay here, we still have to decide what to actually do".

"Yes, most certainly my dear friend, I believe our first priority should be further scouting" The dragon kin answered "We need to be aware of the possible dangers in the area. Besides, it's not much of a market without anybody to trade with" he added with a smirk. "We also need to deal with the food problem and…"

He interrupted himself as he noticed the others staring back to where they had come from. There, a man was walking towards them. He was wearing beige pants, and a blue military outfit. It was closed in the front with three metal straps, and a leather belt going from the left shoulder to the right side of the ribcage. Two different metal protections adorned his shoulders, the left one longer than the other.

His facial features were well defined and his hair was well kept, the top brushed to the left and the sides to the back. He was walking with a confident and elegant stride. When he reached them, they could see his dark brown eyes. "Good evening, masters. It was an excellent speech" he said with a bow "If it is possible, I would like to request for a moment of your time" he finished

After looking at each other with a bit of confusion, it was Hest who broke the silence.

"So…" he put his open palms together, and pointed both of his fingers at him "…Who exactly are you?"

This slightly took the man by surprise, but after only raising an eyebrow in confusion himself, he seemed to understand something and clarified "Oh, of course master. It would simply be logical that _you_ couldn't recognize me in this form"

 _I could swear that had a double meaning._ Hest thought

Upon saying that, to the six of them it appeared as if the eyes, mouth, hair and other facial features of the man had simply evaporated; leaving only a white, featureless head in its place like that of a manequim.

"It is me, SamSalvatore" He said, bowing once again.

"Oh yeah, SS!" Lilith exclaimed "He was one of Nightmare Lullaby ́s creations!" She explained. "Wait, where were you today?" she asked him, as she remembered he was one of the 'Surface' NPC ́s.

"In my usual place for standby, my lady PuriPuriLilith: The Give-a-Hand Tent" he told her.

At that moment there was a shared thought among the six of them: _Did we really forget to check on that place?_

after successfully managing the Sudden urge to facepalm, Wallaquia addressed him "Alright SS. What was it that you needed of us?"

"Yes, master Wallaquia. I wished to report that there might be a small inconvenience with one of my coworkers" He explained.

This quickly caught Shinsekai ́s attention, who promptly asked him "Why would that be?" he asked with a weary tone.

"My sister has gone missing" he simply said.

"Sister?" Lilith mumbled, trying to make sense of the description "Wait, do you happen to mean Kurizu? Lully ́s other creation?"

"Yes. Around five or six hours ago, somewhere around midnight; she simply said 'I'm Bored' and left the tent. I expected her to return to her position, but to this moment she hasn't." He explained.

"…Now just wait a second." It was Wallaquia who spoke, looking at the ground while thinking. He raised his head and asked "didn't Lullaby describe the two of them as our 'Resident Cannibals'?" He asked with a gravely worried expression.

It was Hest who as always broke the awkward silence. "Haha, WE ARE _FUCKED_ "

* * *

After telling SS that they would take care of the situation, they proceeded to the silent office to have the planned meeting, albeit with a little more haste.

Now in their seats around the hexagonal table, the meeting started with Shinsekai asking: "So, How are we going to deal with that?"

After a pause, Loxen spoke. "Thinking about it, I believe our priorities still hold. Walla and Hest should focus on expanding the scouted zone. Becoming aware of the natural resources in the surroundings has a high chance of solving our food problems as well."

"But in that case, who would be in charge of finding Kurizu?" the snore voice of Munra Asked.

"Yes, we would be best suited for finding her" Wallaquia commented.

"I have to say" intervened Hest "as much the idea of a cannibal psychotic lady running around is not one that puts me at ease; I would rather put my talents into exploration as soon as possible."

"I believe I could find her" Lilith spoke next "However, I think I would need a hand in… subduing…our little lamb, just in case she is not cooperative" she said a little uncomfortable. "What do you say about coming with me, Mun?"

"Whatever tendencies she may have been designed with, she is one of our beloved sons. I am worried that she could be in danger. Very well, I will go." He said firmly.

"Meanwhile, I will go through the information that Azkr prepared for us, as well as remaining alert for any reports on your missions" Shinsekai added.

"And while you are all doing that" Loxen added, slouching forward "I request to take Iris, Eve, Caesar, Simon and Johan, as well as two to four brothel girls with me"

After a moment of stunned silence, the dragon kin raised an eyebrow and asked "…and what would you request to mobilize around half of our NPC battle potential for?"

"Well, I may completely agree with the decided course of action; but with four of us out of here at the same time, do you think I will leave us unprotected?" He asked rhetorically "No, I will bring them and we'll patrol from the outer walls together. It may be overdoing it, but this much was a given when some of us couldn't get online for a while"

The dragon kin looked at the other four in turn, getting their approval. "Very well my friend, we will entrust the safety to you. You may order the requested NPC`s and the guards at the watchtowers as you see fit"

"That reminds me" Wallaquia stood up and approached his friend "Here, take this" he told him as he reached into his inventory to withdraw the control pad for the [small bag of gadgets] he had used during his scouting. "Use it to watch over the perimeter with the cameras that we placed. You won't get any of the cyborg bonuses, but you should still be able to use it"

"Thanks my friend, I will put it to good use" the golem bowed in thanks.

"Ok everyone, with our most recent course of action decided, I declare this conference concluded" the guild leader said as everyone stood up.

"We are really having a lot of them in quick succession don't we?" laughed Hest.

And with a chuckle from everyone, they departed for their new tasks.

* * *

Marching out of the guild through the main entrance, PuriPuriLilith and Enges Munra walked outside for the first time since arriving in the new world.

"You know, it really is kind of impressive" said Lilith in an absentmindedly happy tone, as she looked around at the mountains.

"I have to agree" The sore voice of the elder Munra said "I find myself really liking the surrounding greenery"

"Your herbalist senses tickling?" Lilith gave a little smile at him.

"Even more than that, the sky looks completely blue and, while scarce, the plants look so green and beautiful" the old man struggled to find words "It's just amazing to see something so natural in the flesh"

"Or bark" she teased, earning a scoff and a smile in the Ent`s rough face.

"In any case, how are we going to find her?" he asked the nun.

"Well, I have a couple of tracking scrolls, but I was hoping that maybe our good friend behind us could help"

Following closely behind them at a respectful distance was the featureless SamSalvatore. Lilith had requested that he accompanied them since she was his sister.

Getting a little closer to speak more clearly, the military man answered. "I would love to, my lady; but I am afraid that my tracking skills are, while very precise; limited to only things that I have hurt, or have hurt me."

She pouted when hearing that, but quickly resumed her march. "Oh well, nothing can be done about that. I'll use a scroll" with a swift motion of her hand, she pulled from within her robes –her inventory- a moderately big, rolled-up parchment. Opening the piece of paper, she naturally focused her magic energy into it, and called the name of the spell It contained: "[Shadow Reach]" after which her shadow darkened several shades, and then shoot in multiple directions.

She hummed with her eyes closed, focusing on the sensorial information transmitted by the shadows. [Shadow Reach] was a simple spell that informed its user of any entity that could cast a shadow inside a certain range, regardless of light conditions. "Nothing" she declared "she may either be outside of the shadows range, or she may have climbed up a mountain or hidden in a cave". an unfortunate limitation was that the shadow couldn't thoroughly scan the total three-dimensional area; just the surface that the owners shadow is cast into, usually the ground.

"Well, onto the next one" Munra stated simply "I know you have _way_ more than a single trick up your sleeve"

"Oh, come on, Mun! I wanted to play the part of the distressed lady to Sam" She again pouted at him, which he found strangely endearing

"… Not to mean any offense, Master Lilith" the mentioned soldier spoke "But I am aware of your… pranks, as my commander called them when she talked about you"

"Aw, Lully talked about me." She gave a happy smile at the memory of one of her fellow female guild member. "Well, okay, next up is this!" She pulled another scroll from her robe with more vigor "[Earthen Mother`s Watch]!"

Again with her eyes closed, she focused on the information sent by the spell. "She isn't actively running inside my range, nor have there been any recent footprints left. She must have either been watching her step very carefully, or is just incredibly nimble"

"Why do I suddenly feel like this could drag on for quite a while?" Said Munra, mostly to himself.

"Just you wait there, I am barely starting!" exclaimed the Angelic woman.

* * *

After saying farewell for the time being to Hest, Wallaquia decided it was a good time to visit his personal office, while getting ready for the scouting mission.

 _Is it really a good idea to go out?_ He thought. _Are there any other players outside, beside us? And if there are, are they hostile?_ The gears in his head simply wouldn't stop spinning.

He didn't want to think about those possibilities; he didn't want to think about anything for the time being.

But it was as if his mind was constantly making questions and deductions out of everything, and unless he focused his attention to resolve it, it would just result in a bombardment of more and more things to consider. Which would quickly become a nightmare of logical and illogical thoughts crossing and mashing in his head, based on whatever the hell was currently going on; resulting in painful, undeserved headaches.

 _I got to learn how to live with these I suppose._ He rationalized, rubbing his templates. _It is absurdly annoying, though._

As he got close to the door, he could see that it was still a functional automatic door.

"SpaceScraper **really** liked to make our offices as race-thematic as possible, huh?"He smiled fondly as he contemplated the door. "There's not a single magic item in use here"

 _Now that I think about it._ The cyborg remembered. _He once made a super detailed questionnaire about what each of us would like our personal rooms to be like._ He sweat dropped at the memory. _I have never met someone who liked to do his job as much as him._

Grinning, he took a step and the door automatically opened- only to find a dark void and otherworldly sounds coming from inside.

 _What in the actual-_

Before he could even begin to understand what was happening, the lights suddenly turned on.

Only to find that the walls, once pearly white; were now full of drawings and what _seemed_ to be words not known to man, that also extended through the floor and the ceiling.

Even covering the surface of the desks and chairs in the room.

As he stepped inside –suppressing all reaction for the time being-, A girl that didn't seem to be older than 12 or 13 turned to look at him with such force and speed; that he could have sworn he heard a bone crack.

Somewhere in the chaos of his mind, a memory gave him the name of the girl "...Sussie" he somehow managed to get that out in a neutral tone.

Her black mesmerizing eyes and her wild, raven hair gave a beautiful contrast to her white; almost pale, skin.

The cloth that she wore only consisted of an oversized tunic that covered her hands and feet completely.

 _All right… Sussie is here._ He tried to rationalize.

 _Oh jesus Sussie is here!_ He failed to rationalize.

Attempting to calm down the raging storm in his head, he tried to remember. She was a special NPC that had been awarded to the guild –specifically, to him- for the accomplishment of a monumentally hard, end-game cyborg quest.

They had triggered the quest while exploring some –apparently never-seen-before- territory very far away from the center of one of the monster-race worlds of YGGDRASIL.

It was obviously sort of Lovecraft-inspired, involving a lot of the more alien-looking creatures of the game. At the end of it all, they got a lot of spoils, one of the things that now reside in the trophy room; and one girl NPC that while listed as theirs, neither her settings nor information could be accessed; making her essentially walking a mystery.

As she had shown no apparent combat-oriented abilities –and had the very, VERY creepy feature of randomly teleporting behind people- It was decided to better leave her in a place where she could be easily found, but not cause trouble for anyone.

Hence; her "owner's" office.

Having calmed down, he locked eyes with her. They looked at each other for a while, not blinking even once. _Well, apparently as a cyborg, I have abandoned all sense of normalcy_.

Reassured by the other NPC ́s reactions, and frankly not thinking too deep, he settled for negotiating with her "Sussie, could you please go sit in the corner?"

She got up, leaving her drawing behind -which looked like some kind of tentacle-faced monster- and walked to the closest corner, where she slowly sat, hugging her knees. Not even once did she break eye contact.

"...sigh"

Deciding that he had enough thinking for the day, Wallaquia simply pulled his chair, and sat on top of the many drawings that apparently were stuck to it, making the sound of many papers being crushed.

His logical processor apparently shutting down due to the sheer abnormality of her; he simply sat there quietly.

And for the first time since arriving in the new world, He found himself relaxing. Which he could almost call the best moment of the day; except for the pair of black eyes that he could feel were still intently looking at him.

Deciding to tell her to stop that, He turned around to speak to her.

Only to find the corner where she was supposed to be sitting, to be completely dark.

It was space-void level of dark, even though the room was fully illuminated. The corner seemed to be absorbing every photon, making the room darker.

Dumbly staring at her, he snapped "Why are you like this? Is this your idea of a joke?" he asked her, raising his voice "Like, if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back or something?"

His only response was an innocent-sounding girly giggle coming from the void.

Feeling utterly defeated, he turned again to his original position; and just touched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes.

"...Fuck"

* * *

Loxen had to admit that he was… _intrigued_ , at the very least; if not downright amused.

After he contacted Lorelei to request the assistance of some of the concubines –and having to insist that he needed them only for the mercenary part of their service- he got sent three of the girls: Wanda, a cute kobold covered in creamy fur; Winsbrit, a very slim red-feathered harpy; and Eruvi, a forest elemental whose corset was actually made of magenta and black flowers growing on her.

After assembling all the NPCs, he had requested a meeting with the guard at the watchtowers, he divided his temporary personnel into four groups:

-All of the guards would patrol the northern side of the colosseum, where the entrance was located.

-Simon, Eve and Wanda were protecting the eastern side.

-Caesar, Iris and Eruvi patrolled along the western part of the wall.

-Meanwhile Johan, Winsbrit and himself guarded the Southern wall, very close to his forge.

It had been a while now, and besides the notice from the guard that Munra, Lilith and SamSalvatore had departed; nothing had really happened.

Nothing regarding the safety of the guild, that is.

When he integrated the mercenaries with their personal NPC, he expected many kinds of reactions. Maybe open comradery? Or perhaps some sort of distance between the groups? The former was the case for the most part; however, what he did NOT expect was for Wanda and Winsbrit to immediately approach a clearly uncomfortable Johan, nor the red shade on the boy ́s cheeks as he evaded them, or his open dismay when he had announced the teams.

While walking to their designated patrolling place, he had learnt the details –from an exited harpy and a tomato in a lab coat- about the event at the brothel. Apparently what hadmade Johan _really_ freak out was the 'Completely Feral' strength with which Sparta –The muscular green haired cyclops- had restrained him on the bed, while the other two girls started caressing him.

And during an accidental moment of free movement, while the girls discussed who was going first, he was able to take a phial out of his left pocket –the reserves in his lab coat far out of reach, resting on the carpet floor- and threw the glass against the floor, shattering it and immediately releasing its contents. The powerful paralyzing substance was barely able to make the bigger woman to weaken her forceful hug enough for him to squirm from under her.

When she tried to chase after him, he thought about using the explosive mix he carried, but figured it was simply too much of an exaggeration. Instead, he reached into his back pocket and tore a little bag of blue powder in her face as she lunged at him, which she inhaled; and promptly fell unconscious.

With the other girls racing upstairs to see what the commotion was about, it would have been very easy to simply break the window and flee. However, as Winsbrit –And later on, Wanda- would thoroughly and excitedly describe the golem; Johan had actually taken the time to rest the other two slumped girls into the bed, who had fallen victim to the first potion; and apologized to them for the extremes actions he took. Only after that did he make his escape, using a couple more tricks along the way to resist the fall and escape in time.

The harpy happily clung to Johans left arm, who had essentially resigned himself to it; both for her excessive energy, and the feeling of guilt about causing ill to a fellow member of bifrost, even if she had intended to, essentially, sexually assault him.

All in all it was a very amusing story, especially after hearing the feathered girl rant about him being so 'Handsome' and 'Manly' in his escape, the boy's head was at risk of exploding from the blood pressure.

It seems like perhaps his worries were for nothing, but he ́d be a fool if he let a little good spirit blind him to possible danger. His attentive watch didn't prevent him from teasing the alchemist, however. _I can kind of see why Lilith likes this so much._

 _Anyway, it should be about time that Hest ́s group went on their scouting mission; hopefully they will only bring back good news._

* * *

After half-relaxing in the eerie silence of his office, Wallaquia had gone to the entrance of the guild to meet up with Hest and the two girls.

"Man you suddenly look like shit" Hest quickly remarked when he saw him "What happened?"

"Sussie. In my office" the cyborg simply stated.

"That cosmic-horror girl?" he asked somehow sounding both worried and intrigued.

"Mmhm" his friend replied wordlessly.

"Anyway" Hest said, feeling the mood of his companion "We better check everything at least once before departing"

After making sure their equipment was in top condition, and making the necessary plans in case of any emergency; the 'team alpha' -as Hest decided to call it- consisting of Hest himself, Wallaquia, Saphira and Peacemaker; made its way through the guild gates.

After giving a quick nod to the group of soldiers patrolling over the entrance wall; they headed west. The walk through the abnormal mountains was uneventful, until they arrived at the border of a very dense forest.

While they had expected an area with denser vegetation due to the changes in the atmosphere, they had not been prepared to find a big-sized river dividing the border of the forest from the mountains, much less after barely an hour and a half of walking.

Hest got down to taste the water and gave a nod. "I guess this resolves the water problem, what I don't get is that this forest apparently has everything for an animal to live in tranquility but I don't sense any animal or beast close by" The human frowned "I expected there would be at least a couple animals even if sparse, but there isn't anything here either."

"Maybe it's because there is no prey over here?"

"Then that's worse. That would mean that we have a place where there are only insects and vegetation, considering the fact that the plants too can become somewhat "alive" in the sense of being carnivorous, it could be a nightmare to explore; so we gotta be more careful now"

Making a hum sound Wallaquia began to make a mental map to see where the river would lead.

"Anyway, We should inform the rest about the water source. [Message] Hello everyone. Hest here, there appears to be a river around 2km west of the base"

In came the voice of Shinsekai who sounded very much pleased

"I see! That is one problem less at least"

"Could you follow it to see where it leads?" said the deep voice of Loxen.

"Negative. I don't believe that will be necessary" the cyborg walked towards the river to get a better feel of it. "Its torrent leads in a slight curve towards the east. It should lead at least 1 km or less up south, meaning it may actually be closer to the southern side of the base"

Hest looked at where the river led, trying to confirm his friend ́s estimate. Being one to not take any chances of making a mistake, he told Saphira to climb up a three and report what she saw.

"Wallaquia-sama is right! The river does curve a bit towards the base!" came the excited voice of his draconic companion.

"Well, that settles it. I'll later send someone else from here to look up south for the river, since it should be a shorter trip from here. Keep on your search, Shinsekai out"

"All right, we should get going then" Hest walked towards his friend.

* * *

After another 2 hours of walking through the forest -and still a little unnerved at finding _nothing_ in the sense of animal life- the two friends started their usual banter.

"Damn, I had this date with that girl I told you about a week ago and now I'm stuck in this shit" the human complained.

"Oh you must mean WE are stuck in this shit" retorted the cyborg as he stepped over the foliage.

"I know what the fuck I just said; you ain't the one with the blue balls" to which the other only gave a laugh.

Trailing behind them were Saphira and Peacemaker watching the perimeter for any sign of animal life or any weird flora.

After a bit more walking, Wallaquia added: "Pretty bold of you to assume you were about to smash"

Looking offended Hest didn't hesitate to respond. "What The Fuck you mean? She is lucky I took an interest in her! I mean, you know I'm a delight to be around"

Seeing his face with an amused look wallaquia looked behind him to check on their companions

Only to see them making almost the same idle chatter the same way they were doing, just watching on opposite sides, Saphira talking somewhat excitedly and Peacemaker nodding or responding to any interesting thing her friend told her

This scene made Wallaquia realize that the relationship between the masters affected the behavior of the NPCs they made. _It's Pretty much like a child seeks to imitate the behavior of its parents. So, since Peacemaker and Spphira did not have much lore explained on their settings; when they became alive they just assumed their personalities based on how their creators behaved?_

Interrupting his train of thought, Hest whispered to him with a smile; and then raised his hand to his face "Well this somewhat takes me back. I mean, I know this sounds stupid since we are not that old; but it feels weird to feel so much younger." He paused as he took a deep breath "well that and the air is so much nicer here"

"Yeah I know what you mean" the cyborg agreed.

They walked in silence, the only sound being that of nature and the whispers of Saphira and Peacemaker behind them.

* * *

"Well, I am officially annoyed" said a sweating Lilith, as she panted a little "No foot prints, no smells, no magic residues" She started yelling "Not even ONE stupid hair fell off!" after which she regained her composure. "Are you sure she is completely, one hundred per cent Human?" she asked the man in military uniform.

"Absolutely, lady Lilith" The featureless soldier answered her.

"Well, that's IT." The nun huffed. "I didn't want to spend any of my long-recharge spells, but I am _not_ leaving things like this"

Sensing what the girl was going to do, the ent tried to stop her "Girl, you should really reconsider…" however, before he could finish his sentence, Lilith had already pulled a red leather book from her inventory and activated her spell.

"[Root Serpent's Eye]!" as the book in her hands vanished in a white light, she started floating and radiating the same light.

After a few seconds of this, she opened her eyes –filled with golden light- "I found her," she stated.

"How is she?" asked Munra while approaching her.

"Not Alone" and then she slowly descended to the ground. "There are creatures with her"

"What, but Hest said-" but she cut him off.

"Hest was right. There is not a single animal or beast in kilometers" she paused as she stopped to recover her breath after the tiresome cast. The spell had the consequence of draining more than seventy percent of her MP, for the ability to see _any_ sentient beings in a 5 kilometer radius.

"However, he ignored the signs of greenery all around," she told him, looking at him in the eye.

It took a brief moment for the oldest business man to understand "… Plant type monsters" at which she nodded.

"Many of them, a small cave system full to the brim. Or at least it was." She made a small pause for dramatic effect "The ones around her were dying, _fast_ "

"Masters?" The voice of Salvatore came from behind them "I believe it would be prudent to make haste if you wish to stop her" He turned to look at Lilith "The situation you describe means that she won't stay there for long"

* * *

Finally team alpha got a change of scenery in the form of a high cliff. Hest walked up to its edge and said, "Well, this is what? Like, 10 km from the guild at least?"

Peacemaker who remained silent for a while now said "9 and a half according to coordinates"

 _She must share the same mind process as me, should I ask her how she manages the headaches?_ Wallaquia thought.

"Hey, you should see this" the Ranger announced to the group. When they all gathered beside their friend, they could see; almost 3 km from the cliff, a fort standing proudly in the distance.

Taking the chance of seeing how many of his abilities worked the cyborg said "[far sight]"

His right eye made a mechanical zooming sound, until his vision was clear enough to see the roads leading to the fort. There, he saw people getting a cart full of dark elves from various ages, all with their arms and feet chained. "Slaves…..?"

"What? How many you think there are?" Hest said getting his binoculars

"Around 15 or 20 of them, call the guild" his friend answered in a dry tone.

"[Message] Hey guys there is a situation over here". The ranger communicated with a bit of haste to his speech.

"Of what kind?" Lilith responded in a worried tone.

"The ugly kind" he simply said

"Report immediately" Came the voice of the guild leader.

 _Shinsekai. I've got to talk to him._ Wallaquia thought. _"_ There seems to be a group of human slavers taking dark elves into a fort of sorts, from young to old, either for trading or other…...illicit purposes"

"What? What kind of sick garbage kidnaps children?" came the gruff voice of Loxen.

"Nevermind that, are they dangerous?" an elderly response from Enges Munra.

"Let me see" the ranger said. "[basic knowledge]" as he casted a basic skill that allowed him to assess the equipment and levels of any low level NPC or player.

"They are humans, and rather weak. Their armor is somewhat good –for their level- but otherwise the rest of their equipment is trash. Requesting permission to engage" he could feel the worried glances of his companions from behind him but he choose to ignore them for now.

"Are you mad? We don't even know anything about this place yet!" Lilith said worried about the wellbeing of her friend

"Yes but we need to get a proper feel of our abilities. And considering that infiltration is my forte, and that they are low level grunts; I believe I can manage"

Meanwhile Hest couldn't help but catch the lie in his old friend's voice. While it's true that they needed to practice and try different things, that is not the point of why he wants to infiltrate that fort; he simply wants to do it because he can't stand this kind of injustice to civilians.

 _But he still made a good point_. He thought.

Wallaquia waited in silence while Shinsekai though for a moment.

"I see…negative wait until you at least have more info on the enemy"

 _Shit…._ The cyborg cursed mentally.

Seeing the mad expression on his friend's face, Hest managed to respond "Understood, we will continue to explore meanwhile"

Ending the communications Hest looked at his friend who was sitting at the edge of the cliff.

Approaching him, he started in a casual tone "I suppose you and peacemaker will stay here"

"Yeah" his friend answered in monotone.

"And I suppose I gotta look over there to inspect the condition of the forest" the human continued.

"Yeah….." the other replied with the lowest of smirks on his face.

"I won't be too far from here if you need help, but at least wait until night time to get inside there will ya? Like that it will be easier to explain why you did it"

"...sorry" the spy sounded genuinely apologetic.

Hest just looked at him with an amused expression and walked towards the silver haired girl "We are going, Sapphira"

"But master! Shinsekai-sama said to not get separated!"

He just put a finger on her lips to silence her. "In this case he works best alone so just let them be, dear"

Hest removed his finger and walked, Sapphira just blushed and looked worriedly at Peacemaker who just gave her a smile before walking back towards wallaquia. She kept on looking for a couple of seconds before following her master.

* * *

After hurrying to the area in which Lilith had detected the escaped Kurisu, they had to look all around to find the cave entrance.

However, once they got close enough, the sounds of giggling and something soft and heavy hitting the ground reached them; revealing to them the opening hidden behind a wall of short bushes.

Shortly after entering the cave they found themselves into a relatively open underground area. Here they saw the creatures Lilith had detected.

They were very big and wide, with a somewhat chubby appearance, but instead of having a round belly, their whole torso was cylindrical; with their skin ranging between ash blue and dark grey. They had very short arms and legs, albeit considerably thick. Their cone-like head was fused with the body, its base a bit larger than the top of the torso. Their heads were a different color than the body, usually cream or white. A big mouth was the only facial feature they presented.

"Myconids!" Munra exclaimed with a little amusement to his voice.

It didn't last long, however, as he saw the dismembered upper torso of one of them being thrown airborne as the giggling increased.

"Well, we found her" Said Lilith in with half a snicker "now what? She doesn't seem to be as…" glanced at SamSalvatore "good natured as the other NPCs"

"Of course my lady" The soldier exclaimed, startling them a little "We were created as a Chaotic force to balance out to the Market" He declared proudly.

While Lillith sweat-dropped, Munra asked: "However, you remain loyal to us, correct?" as he turned to face him, meanwhile parts of the Mushroom creatures were still being scattered everywhere in the center of the cave.

"Yes, Master Munra." He calmly answered "I am very aware of our differences with the rest of the personal. However, that is something in which I take pride; since that is the way that my creator, Nightmare Lullaby made me." After this, Munra could feel the soldier's body tense, likely with an unseen serious expression "But I can swear to you, masters, that our loyalty is as absolute as the most lawful-good of our fellow workers"

Feeling the determination of his gaze, the old man nodded "Very well, son." After that, he turned around and headed for the center of the cave.

"What are you going to do?" Asked the Fallen angel.

"I'll bring her back. If what he says is true, then simply asking her should do the trick" as he approached the center, he was surprised to see that the creatures never took their attention away from the woman. By this point they were only surrounding her while showing open hostility, but it was her who got close to slaughter them.

The ent walked to the center of the cave with ease, the creatures simply moving when he gently pushed them. When he appeared, she looked at him and smiled "Professor!" She waved her gory hands covered in the grey tone of the creature ́s entrails.

She was very pretty, he admitted to himself. Smooth white skin with silky black hair, her slender figure and her light blue sundress combined with her straw hat –which somehow hadn't fallen off- gave her a very innocent appearance. If only she wasn't covered in gore…

He silently walked up to her, placed one hand on her shoulder, and gave her a very serious look and said "Stop. We have to go back"

To his surprise, she actually looked cast down "…Already?" She asked in a low voice

"Yes, you went out without telling anyone, we were very worried" _Of what you may cause._ He sweat dropped.

"Haha… sorry about that professor, but I was very bored," she told him, with a sort of apologetic smile.

"That may be so, but you can't simply abandon your post like that, Sister!" the faceless soldier told her as he got closer, to which she replied with a small pout.

By this point, the myconid were surrounding the group, with their attention now also focusing on Munra, who had to be a bigger threat if he could so easily take their assaulter ́s attention away from them.

"So what do we do about these guys?" Lilith asked while poking one on the cap, before It hurriedly retreated behind the crowd.

"We will definitely have to deal with them later," the professor started "But they seem eager for us to go away as it is" after which he offhandedly commented: "I mean, it's not like they posed much of a menace to her" as he eyed Kurisu.

"Hey, hey! Professor, Lilith-sama!" said girl suddenly called their attention.

"Yes honey, what is it?" Lilith asked.

"Can I keep these two?" she said with a playful smile while pointing at the area where she had been 'fighting'.

They were puzzled for a moment, until they saw movement around the defiled bodies. Two horribly disfigured myconids where still resisting. One had its left arm completely torn apart, with a head-sized hole in the side of his thorax. The other one was missing its entire lower half, and had a deep claw-like wound on its back.

Munra and Salvatore were about to object, but Lilith saw the chance and quickly answered "Can you promise us, little lamb; that you won't ever again move without permission if we allow you to have them?" A serious expression on her face, trying to convey to the girl that there would be no buts about it if she accepted.

"Yeah!" she said energetically "With them I won't get bored inside".

"Alright then." she accepted the girls petition, to which she smiled with glee. After seeing this, the nun turned towards her friend. " Mun, could you please heal those creatures for me?"

Seeing that she had found a way to further ensure their safety, the ent could not find it in himself to complain to her for the one sided decision. "Alright then. But you are hauling them back to the guild when im done, little girl" he told Kurisu in a slightly stern voice.

"Yes! Thank you very much professor!".

* * *

Peacemaker was a simple girl really, if you took all the tech and stoicism from her, the only thing left would be a weapons otaku, lover of music, and a cheerleader for her master, simple right?

But as much as she trusted her creator with her life, she couldn't help but feel inadequate every time she stepped on a mission with him. He valued efficiency and quickness on every job they went on, and you can bet that even if it's to step on a cockroach she will give her 100% if her master orders her to.

Perhaps because he was the one to create her, there was this impending sense of doom every time she and her sisters felt him get mad, and every time that happened; something bad followed, be it small or big, and then he demanded an even bigger amount of professionalism on the job.

Feeling nervous since it's been almost 3 hours since her master last spoke she timidly asked.

"Um, perhaps master would like to listen to some music before the mission?"

As if realizing for the first time that Peacemaker was with him since Hest left, he looked at her with no expression whatsoever.

"I-i just asked because every time master enters a mission he listens for an hour or two and then goes in, I ju-just assumed it would be that way this time too, I am sorry if it was too intruding on my part….."

And again no expression

Feeling overwhelmed by the sight of her master on her she just went for the music player on her inventory, the player in this case not being normal tech but a weird combination with magic providing energy to the object giving the form of an old music player with a blue glow, with white headphones that had cartoonish skulls on the right and left side; and extended it to him.

After a minute or so she felt her master take it and put the headphones on each ear, she gave a happy smile and accommodated herself on her seat, it was fine until she felt the soft flows of music circulating on her left ear as her master put the left headphone on her.

Blushing but deciding to stay silent, they just listened to music until night came.

The two were completely unaware of a pair of eyes watching them.

 _And he told me that_ I _was the cougar. Fuck you man._

* * *

After an hour or so Wallaquia finally decided to begin the infiltration.

"Alright, let's go. We should do this before midnight"

Listening to her master peacemaker got ready.

After analyzing the basic structure of the fort from afar, he could pinpoint some entrances from which he could get inside. The thing was that the guards outside could hear something.

"I will be on the field; I need you to snipe from here. Can you do that?"

"While it's an excellent location, I can only aim for the guards on top master"

"That is exactly what I want," he replied.

Getting down to make sure her things were in place, Peacemaker got her rifle out, a normal mosin nagant modified with runes made in circles around the barrel, that made the bullet increase their speed each time they pass the runes. It had a very highly effective range, however it otherwise had the stats of a normal low level weapon. And from this distance it would be very unlikely to hear the shots.

 _Smart girl_ Wallaquia thought. "Use dissolving bullets. Even if they have no means to track us, I don't want any evidence left"

"Understood"

Looking again with his [far sigh], he searched for the 10 guards on the left side of the fort. Following them for a little, he could see that each one walked over the same space in intervals of at least 5 minutes each.

"All right, when this two guards get over that entrance; count to 5 minutes, when the other two reach that point; I will give you the signal to shoot them I will take care of the bodies from the inside"

"Understood, Master" she nodded to him again.

Getting in sniping position, she laid on her chest and looked downwards to the fort.

"I will need you to be my eyes from outside. If there seems any suspicious behavior, I need you to call me immediately"

"Very well" she said, giving him a military salute, as he jumped down the cliff and ran towards the imposing fort in the distance.

* * *

Hello, Demosx again.

This one was quite the lengthy piece to finish, but it was completely worth it.

Finally going out of the guild, this business men set their first step towards the total dominion of the global market; and perhaps a liiiitle more than that.

And right off the bat, one of them seems to get himself in deep trouble. If it will be worth it, it remains to be seen.

Anyway, thank you for your time; and please review if you liked the story or have anything to say; constructive criticism is very well appreciated.


	4. Harsh Decisions

After hearing Wallaquia ́s words, Loxen couldn't help but feel a certain amount of unease. Knowing his companion, seeing children treated as slaves must have hit too close to home –if his own anger was anything to go by- But he hoped that he could remain level headed.

Still, memories began to stir,of the hell-hole in which both of them were raised. That corruption-filled landscape that had the balls to call itself a country, comparable to the stomach of a monster that slowly dissolved the life of those inside it into despair and nothingness.

It really wasn't unusual to see children as young as 6 working in the streets doing whatever to scrap a penny: and that's not mentioning the blood suckers that carried babies out in the street just to get more pity when begging for money.

"Well, we all managed to escape it." The golem thought, as he tried to regain his focus. "Thank god for immigration and blessings to however pressed the button that erased that cursed place from the maps"

As he exposed his thoughts aloud, a feminine voice called behind him "What do you mean, Loxen-sama?"

The voice, that sounded young and quizzical; belonged to Winsbrit, The red harpy that –Together with Johan- Was helping him patrol the southern edge of the guild ́s walls.

"It is nothing, young lady. Just musing about past events" he said, turning to look back at her.

To his surprise, the girl had actually let go of the scientist ́s arm, who was just a few meters to the right, approaching them after having finished a round towards the rightmost side of their patrol area.

"Master Loxen, everything is alright in the South-West area" The young man side as he approached.

"Ah, yes, everything is ok too in the South-East area" Answered the feathery girl with a small chuckle, having forgotten to make her report after seeing one of her bosses staring into space.

After hearing both of them, he nodded to himself. "Perfect, I haven't seen movement from here either" Looking at the sky, he gave a sigh "It's getting really late; soon night will be upon us" The firmament was mostly dark and starred; with only an orange glow to the West, were the sun was halfway through setting.

A few dozen minutes went by, as they kept their gazes scanning the various rock pillars that surrounded the market.

As the nocturnal mantel covered the sky, many more patrol rounds had gone by. After some time, as Winsbrit had partially covered the distance towards the South-East; johan approached the golem to talk to him.

"Master Loxen" He began, pausing so that his creator ́s friend would acknowledge him. "I have been meaning to ask for a while but, is there a problem?" He asked "Professor and lady Lillith came back unharmed, and it is not that I fear for the success of Master Hest ́s exploration mission; But ever since their report you seem to be somewhat tense"

After rising an stonish eyebrow to the young man, the golem let out a sigh and answered "Well, it seems that we miiight have a little bit of situation in our hands, depending on what course of action Wallaquia takes. And if I know him just a bit, I get the feeling that leader is going to talk his ear off after this" He said, giving a small, bemused smile.

Seeing this, the young man chuckled to himself "So he's acting against orders? Hah, ironic considering that he's a soldier"

"…you catch on very quick kid" Loxen said, thinking that _perhaps_ he shouldn't have let the boy know that tidbit.

"Can't call myself much of a scientist if I can't make a little deduction, now can i?" And after giving a smile, he proudly added: "It's the way the Professor made me, after all"

After keeping an eye in the mountains for a while, the boy continued talking "Anyway, all that means is that the bosses have differences to settle. Not everyone can agree on what's "the right decision". But how bad is it, if I may ask?"

Thinking that no harm could be done, since they already came to the conclusion to trust the NPCs, loxen admitted to him "Honestly? I'm afraid that it's very likely that Wallaquia will get himself in deep shit"

"I see" the young alchemist chuckled at his master ́s frankness; after which they both resumed their patrols.

As Wallaquia was getting closer to the fort, he activated his [camouflage] and [night vision] skills. He could tell that from the cliff to the fort it would take him at least ten seconds more than he estimated; if he kept at half his maximum speed.

 _Minor calculation errors just the usual_ the cyborg thought.

Getting closer to the south of the building; he could see the wooden door of the entrance, which had two guards stationed on top.

 _Another 3 minutes until change, what I find weird is that there are barely no guards in this door_

After half a minute he heard the door creak open, as a guy dressed in peasant clothes, throwing out what looked like horse or cow waste.

 _Maybe there is a barn close by? That's why there are no guards down on this side?_

He waited until the change of guards happened to send the signal.

While he waited, he used [message] to contact his partner.

"Remember the plan?" he asked.

"Yes master" Peacemaker, who was stationed in a sniping position atop the cliff, answered him.

"Good, now the moment they stop to replace the others; I want you to shoot them down. Got it?"

"Roger, be careful master" she told him in a serious yet slightly cheerful tone.

Ending [message] he watched how the two guards got into position, and not a second later they got shot down with a single bullet to the head.

 _A clean shot as expected._

Not expecting the man that was in the barn to check in the noise he got down and waited until he was far enough from the door to get close to him.

"Is someone there?" the peasant asked.

Grabbing the knife from the pouch on the left side of his chest; Wallaquia quickly approached the man, grabbing his neck from behind and putting the knife close to his carotid.

Putting his other hand over the man's mouth so that he wouldn't scream out of surprise; he whispered to him "Hello. now you will make for a good guide"

Looking down towards the knife the scared man tried to speak. "Pl-please sir I'm just a worker here I didn't do anything wrong"

"Oh, is that so?" The cyborg asked in a flat voice "Well, I'll give you the chance to do something good today then" He said, slightly pushing the knife against the man's throat "Are there any more workers inside, or are you alone at the barn?"

"Ho-how did you(knife makes a superficial wound) I-I mean. I am alone, cleaning duty at nights only consist of one"

"Nice, now did you see where they took the elves?"

"The elves?" the man repeated, confused. But after remembering the sharp weapon, he just complied "There are cells in the lower floors. When they bring large amounts of slaves they take them to the biggest one so they can make a… party"

Wallaquia ́s face contorted in a frown "What kind of party?" The cyborg asking, partially understanding what the man meant.

"The degenerate kind….."

Making up his mind, Wallaquia smiled gently to the man; which only served to rob the man of all the heat in his body. "Well for the affordable price of your life you can show me the way right?"

By the time the group that went searching for Kurisu had returned, the sky was already completely dark, covered by uncountable stars.

As they once again passed the entrance of the Market, Lilith and Munra separated from the Chaotic-Evil brothers; who were eager to return to their assigned places, one from his sense of duty, and the other one happy for her new pets.

"Muuun… I'm completely exhausted…" The Angelic nun complained.

"You weren't showing it until now, though" retorted the tall ent.

"Well, yeah; but that's just because work is work." She explains with a pout "I can go on as long as I want; but after all has been done, the fatigue just comes crashing down on me"

"I see…" he says with a little, amused smile. "Perhaps it would be best for you to rest then. Should we go to the buffet to refresh ourselves?"

Lilith seemed to ponder on the offer for a minute, until a mischievous smile spread through her lips. "Inviting me to a late-night dinner? Wow Mun, I didn't think you could be so bold!" she put a hand on her chest in mock-surprise.

Before the poor old man had any chance to answer, she quickly placed herself in front of him; one hand on her hip, and the other pointing a finger to his face "But don't you think that you'll get past first base tonight, okay?" She told him in a stern voice, but her lips trembled from containing her grin.

Even though he knew it was just her usual teasing, for some reason this time he couldn't actually find any words to counter her; which led to him simply staring at her, half opening his mouth a few times, only to close it again.

After what he thought was just too much time like that; he put his hands to his face, exhaled a _Very_ heavy sigh, and asked "…shall we get going?" without taking his hands off to look at her.

Her ears perked at the more… "Effective" result she had obtained right now. However, she decided to leave that for later; and simply said "alright, let's go!" and walked to the Buffet with him. Although she couldn't stop giggling all the way.

As they reached the dark wooden front of the building, Lilith and Enges Munra could faintly detect a sweet scent on the air.

When they entered, it became obvious that the smell came from the piles of pancakes that Jeanne was organizing in a few lunch boxes.

However when she spotted them entering, she quickly finished the one she was currently packing; and went to meet them. "Hello boss, Lilith-Sama" she made a quick bow to each of them. "Are you perhaps here to have dinner?"

Perplexed, the Ent answered "Something like that, yes. What are all these containers that you have prepared?"

At that moment, the door to the kitchen opened, and from it came none other than Johan, carrying a very big mountain of pancakes on a plate. "Jeanne I brought the next batch…" He said, until he quickly noticed them.

"Teacher!" he left the plate in the counter and approached his creator. He made his way towards him and bowed. When he rose up, he took note of the smiling nun by the side of his master. "…Lilith-sama" He said with a scowl, the previous eagerness vanishing from his face.

"What are you doing here, boy?" Lilith asked him.

"As I was about to explain to boss" Jeanne interrupted "Loxen-Sama thought that everyone must have been getting hungry from spending so much time doing the patrols, so he sent Johan here to inform us to make dinner for everyone, and also to help in making it and delivering it"

"It is just as she says" Johan simply stated. "So, will you two have dinner, masters?"

 _He really took to heart my advice on not lowering his guard in front of her, huh?_ The Ent internally chuckled. "Yes, please. We will take a seat meanwhile" He said, approaching one of the many wooden tables in the dining area.

"Oh, and could you tell Gnorman to prepare tea for us, please?" Lilith added.

"Understood, it will be served shortly" Johan said, in an almost militaristic tone; which made the nun chuckle, and his underling waitress snicker.

After glaring at Jeanne, Johan retreated back into the kitchen; and the aaesir girl resumed packing the boxes.

After a couple minutes of waiting, both of them were seated in front of two very generous piles of pancakes covered with butter and honey; accompanied by two cups of a wonderfully smelling mint tea prepared by Gnorman.

After eating for a while, Lilith drank from her cup, and relaxed against the chair. "Mmm~ this is very good for the fatigue" she gave a soft moan, as she rubbed her own shoulders.

Seen the tea, Munra came up with an idea, "Hey, if your exhaustion comes from expending you magic energy in your spells, wouldn't simply drinking a MP potion get you back in shape?"

The nun actually stopped to think for a moment "Yeah, you might be right about that" after which she shakes her head "But even if we have a lot of those, it's not like we can readily make more, can we?"

"Whatever might you mean?" the ent asked her.

"Its something I thought about before, when you mentioned the food issue" she explained, "But… we don't really have that big a storage of raw materials, do we?. There just never was a need for it"

After taking another sip from her teacup, she continued "Since we were constantly trading, it was easier to accept or request some materials as a form of payment, so we really never had to worry about stockpiling." As she said this, realization showed in the face of her companion.

"But now we don't have that advantage anymore" he mused.

"Exactly. The Treasury may be filled to the brim with gold coins and rare items; but those are mostly just finished products. Like with food, we have a very limited amount of raw materials stored inside the guild. Be it for your potions, my scrolls, or Loxen`s crafts"

Understanding her, his face contorted in a frown "Essentially, our situation is like that of a factory without a supply line. hummm"

"Well, we can discuss that latter with leader" the nun waved her hands in dismissal. "And as for your original question, I think it would be best if I simply rested here for a while. I may not have much MP regeneration, but it should still be that of a level 100 player."

"Perhaps that is right" the end said. Having finished his meal, he stood up "You should stay here. I will go and report to leader."

"Aww Engi, you're gonna ditch me for a guy?" she giggled, and after an exasperated sigh from the old man, she waved at him "Bye, say hi to him for me"

"Will do" He simply answered, returning her wave; and headed for the exit.

However, before he reached it; he turned back and took one of the lunch boxes "If I know him, he must still be running through the reports" He said "I'll take one of these to him"

And after a giggle and a nod from Jeanne, he made his way towards his leader.

In a pitch black cell, a dark elf paced around.

 _How did this happen?_ She pondered. _How could we fall so low?_ _From a respected race full of novelty to mere slaves in a matter of days._

Her group had been forced to change location, after they were ambushed due to being misinformed about an invasion. They fought to protect their leader –a priestess- but due to the surprise attack, they couldn't do anything and she was taken hostage.

Some others were also taken towards the fortress, including children. They had been put in a line, where they divided them into two groups: one consisting of young and old; and the other consisting of -in their guard`s terms- "fresh meat".

That being the more developed women of their group; consisting of the night vanguards and the priestess acolytes. All of which were more than "Young adults" even for elven standards.

Afterwards, they gagged and tied up the majority of them; except for the priestess and the captain, just so that they would make the rest of the group more complaint. Of course, they were in shackles.

"Do not despair Vora duskbringer, we will be ok" Came a deep yet unmistakably feminine voice.

Sitting in the dark cold floor was the priestess; with her acolytes praying around her. Her long silver hair shined beautifully in the moonlight coming from the window bars.

"How can you even contemplate something good happening out of this!?" Vora, the dark elf pacing about –and the group`s captain- retorted. "It was the same bloody thing when the goddamn three almost killed us all in the forest!"

Vora was a woman on the tall side with long black hair, and a fit complexion that enhanced her appearance. She could be considered beautiful, if only you ignored her almost red blood eyes; which seemed to always possess an enormous, untamed wrath. There were even rumors amongst her people, that if you stared too long you could be swallowed by the same rage.

The priestess gave her a knowing look, one that held more wisdom than what she appeared to have. "Your rage will consume you girl, until there's nothing left but carnage, and a shell of what you once were"

 _And you keep on telling me that as if it were a bad thing._ Vora though with a frown. The members of her team were night vanguards, and she made sure to train them enough to prepare them in case something like this happened. But even then she could feel the roots of nervousness taking a hold of her heart, which only deepened when a gruff voice spoke from beyond the door.

"Stop talking whores, the commander is here!" Spoke the cell guard. Next, a group of around 6 men entered. All of them giving off the disgusting vibe of lust.

The commander of the fort was the tallest man in their group, with heavy armor adorned with blue and silver stripes; and a sword attached to his right hip. His face ported a wicked smirk. Anyone could sense from a mile that this was not a good man.

"It's been a while since me and my men had such good specimens, though I've never tasted a priestess before" he darkly jokes.

Looking at the lady in question, she was not scared in the slightest.

But the same could not be said about her acolytes; who had their hands together, shaking as they feverishly prayed for whatever miracle their goddess could bestow upon them.

Vora, who felt her rage taking over, said "You better not touch them you filthy scum!"

That seemed to wipe the smirk from the commander's face "What did you just say to me you little bitch…."

She got closer to scream at the man "I said-ugh!"

However, the man grabbed her by the hair, and promptly punched her in the face. The members of her team struggled against their ropes, but to no avail. They only stopped when their captain gave them a reassuring glance.

The fort leader brought his face to hers and screamed "Your kind are just a bunch of lowly beings compared to us and even then you dare talk to me that way? You stupid whore!"

After which he punched her two more times, and then threw her to the ground and stepped on her head.

"Apologise! and maybe I'll make it pleasurable for you if you beg me for mercy," he said with a cruel smirk.

The silence reigned in the room for what seemed like hours, as the man put more of his weight on her head; but Vora remained silent and unmoving all the time.

Then, as if a sense of euphoria took her, she began to laugh. First soft giggles, and then full on laughter, much to the horrified eyes of her kin.

"Hehe , apologise for what?" she spat at him "The only thing I regret is falling captured to such limp dicks like you"

Angrier than ever, the man stomped repeatedly on her head. However, she wouldn't stop laughing. "Hahahahah! To think I would lose my purity to fuckers like you! Careful with the mouth though"

With strength that surprised the humans, she managed to lift her head; blood covering her features and reaching her eyes, her hair disheveled and dirtied.

But the feral look in her eyes made the men, and even the elves -except for the priestess- cower in fear from her ire.

"I'll make sure to bite it off! And if there is even a little chance of me getting out of this hell hole, I swear I'll kill every and each one of you along with your families!"

Silence reigned again until the commander slowly but surely began to laugh along with his soldiers.

"She thinks she is going to get out of here a free elf! Now that's so rich!"

But as he tried to once again stomp her, even when he put the full strength of his leg, he could not make her head to go down again.

Getting pissed from her resistance, the fort leader continued rambling "That must have been a joke! After I'm done I will send you to the worst brothel in town and you will die like the whore you are!"

Even though her neck was hurting, her back was scratched, and blood was flowing from her head; she still held it in place "Do your worst you ugly fuck….."

"Yeah keep on talking, I'll make sure to put that tongue of yours for better use"

Still with his boot on her head, they continued laughing until it faded into soft snickers.

Suddenly, a voice came from the group of guards behind the fort leader "Your face was funnier, though"

The voice, although soft, was distinctively male. Being the only ones inside the cell, the guards looked at each other before nervously turning to their commander.

The commander for the first time took his boot from the elf's head to slowly looked back at his soldiers. "Who the actual fuck said that?"

The men, scared of punishment; looked again at each other with a look of bewilderment, until the voice spoke again.

"I am right here you oaf" it mocked.

The commander turned his head towards the elfs expecting the dark haired one to have spoken again, only to find her looking equally confused.

"Nonono over here"

Feeling a hand on his shoulder he quickly looked back, only to feel a fist on his throat that didn't even allow him to whimper.

Vora, having replaced the feeling of anger with those of utter confusion,;kept trying to make sense of the situation, until she saw the figure of a man who appeared out of thin air, in the middle of the two guards closest the commander.

However, before she could fix her thoughts properly; the man had managed to incapacitate the commander with a single punch, and pulled a knife with which he easily sliced one of the guards throats; making the dull but disturbing sound of flesh being cut, before the commander even lifted his hands to his throat.

The other three guards looked on in shock, only reacting when the one close to the cell ́s door took the same knife to the face. The other two, seeing the man no longer had a weapon, saw the opportunity and lunged at him.

The man then took a step back, and dodged the swords that were coming for his face and chest. Taking one of the guards ́s right arm, he slammed his fist into the soldier`s elbow, making the sickening sound of cracked of bone and ripped flesh. To silence the expected scream, he grabbed the guard`s face; and threw him down with enough force to knock him out and possibly kill him.

The other guard, seeing his friend down; directed his sword towards the intruder again, only to be met with thin air. He then felt hands on each side of his head.

The last thing he ever knew was how his body could no longer move, pain spreading through all his being; and the stoic face of his killer before everything faded to black.

The acolytes could only look in fear at the carnage happening in front of them, along with the night vanguards. The only people that were calm were the priestess herself, who only looked in curiosity; and Vora, who still had the same look of confusion on her face.

The only sounds in the cell were the empty coughs of the fort leader, who was still trying to breathe.

"Don't bother, your adam's apple must be so far back it must be crushing your windpipe"

Vora regained her surroundings and slowly moved towards one of the dead guards for a knife while the man looked out of the cell.

"Well it looks like we a-!"

He dodged a knife coming to his face and dodged to the left when the elf tried to slice his chest.

Vora, having taken the knife and freed herself; wasted no time and went against him, making vertical slices; only to get dodged twice again, until he quickly grabbed her left wrist and twisted it a little. He then punched down the knife with his own causing it to fall on the ground.

She tried to punch him with her right arm but got countered with a punch to the face, and thrown to the ground with her arm on her back.

Still in a state of agitation, Vora struggled against him. But the man had a strong hold on her, so she could only look at him out of the corner of her eye.

Fire red met ice cold blue for a minute, before de man spoke.

"I commend your wits, but I have to get you out of here quickly before more guards come"

"And for what, just so your people can do what this garbage tried to do? All of you humans are the same!" The disheveled woman spat at him.

However, before he could answer; a calm voice came from behind her. "I wouldn't say that about this one girl" The priestess stood up with apparent ease -even though the shackles probably weighed a lot for her thin complexion- and walked forward until she stood in front of the two.

"May I ask your name?" she asked.

The man in question looked at the woman and slowly got up, letting the dark elf he had pinned down go.

"I will tell you later. Right now there is no time for pleasantries"

Vora again tried to reach for the knife but was stopped by the harsh voice of the priestess

"Do not attempt it again"

Vora directed her angry eyes at her "Are you crazy? This human could very well be worse than this ones"

"Even if that were the case I am sure that you couldn't outmatch him. Were you even able to follow his movements?"

That made her stay silent. Indeed he managed to take all the guards down before she had any recollection of what was happening. He moved way too fast, even by the standards of dark elves, not to mention that whatever camouflage he had; it made him practically invisible.

Having finally decided that he was the only way of getting out of here, she relented.

 _At least until I am sure I have a chance of killing him._ She thought.

"Alright, with that settled, I have to make a quick call" the man said, turning his back to them "[message] hey man, I need transport"

The man started seemingly talking to himself, as he walked towards the cell door, and grabbed a man that was hiding behind the wall on the other side. Holding him against the bars by his clothes, he continued talking, seemingly uncaring of the horrified look the man was giving him after seeing the carnage.

"Because I forgot, besides the alarm must be sounding about-" then the sounds of people screaming upstairs began "right now"

He walked towards the wall with the high window and grabbed a rectangular object from his waist and stuck it to the wall. The elven warriors looked on curiously at the object.

"Yeah sorry about that thanks" he said.

After that he walked towards the priestess and signaled her to go towards the cell bars and looked at Vora.

"Free them quick we have no time."

Vora still seemed wary of him, and did not take kindly to being ordered, but otherwise did as she was told.

After all of them were far from the object, he made another movement for his ear.

"Peacemaker, I need you to create some more havoc up there a bit away from my position; can you?"

He waited a bit and responded.

"Use non-lethal bullets, and smoke them a bit. We already fucked up way too much"-

After the call ended, he walked towards the cowering man and looked at him in the eye.

"Well my boy," He said, patting the man ́s back "You resulted to be more useful than I expected and for that you have my thanks. But tell me, will you talk?"

The boy looked at the elves then at him.

"I-I swear you won't hear from me! I will not say anything!"

He looked at him with a critical eye before smiling gently at him

"That's nice, I believe you, now I want you to walk away"

The man smiled through his tears screaming thank you again and again .

The elves were not expecting, however, that the second the man pointed his back at him he grabbed his knife and stabbed him a little underneath his neck just at the beginning of his spinal cord, severing its connection with the brain effectively killing him without him even feeling anything.

To this, the priestess finally showed an emotion other than curiosity, that being of annoyance.

"Did you have to kill him?"

Cleaning his knife and putting it away, he said

"He was a witness; he saw everything happen and knew our faces. He was a danger to the mission"

The priestess tried to retort, but decided to leave it for another time.

when another ruckus could be heard upstairs, the man calmly walked towards the fort commander.

Now in front of the bulking man, -who still had his hands to his throat- trying to at least have the pleasure of an intake of fresh air;, mucus and tears now adorned his former brave and arrogant face.

Their rescuer just stood there with no expression on his face, apparently in silent contemplation.

Then procured what appeared to be a syringe from one of his pockets; and plunged it carefully into his neck.

Not long after the commander closed his eyes in a sleepy manner and fell unconscious, now breathing normally.

This seemed to anger Vora once more since it became apparent that the man allowed the commander to live, but said nothing after the man got him on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Alright ladies get closer to the bars please"

That was the only warning he gave before grabbing another object from his pouch. Pressing a button on it while facing them. The sudden explosion that came from the wall made debris and dust fly in all directions, some landing at their feet.

He then calmly turned and walked to the newly open hole in the wall.

The elven women stood there, awestruck at how such a small object could do so much damage to a reinforced wall; but the man told them to hurry.

Hearing the chaos up the walls of the fort, they became anxious after not seeing anybody outside the walls.

Then, as if on cue, a carriage with two enormous horses appeared; with a cute white haired girl and a somewhat tall man grabbing the reins. After stopping in front of them, the two men silently regarded each other with their eyes before their rescuer spoke.

"Where in the actual fuck did you get the carriage?"

The other man just smiled and said "Does it even matter? Just get in"

With no more words between them, he just dumped the body of the commander behind the carriage; and took a seat beside him, while the girl animatedly stood in front of the group of women.

"Hi hi! My name is Saphira!" she eagerly explained "Now if you could please get in the carriage to escape this place, I would be really thankful!"

And after exchanging dubious looks, all twenty of them got on the carriage; and once they were seated, the horses began to run up north.

After using his guild ring to teleport, Munra quickly discovered the guild leader in the conference room; were he had a bunch of paper sheets scattered around the table.

Noticing him, he took his eyes from the papers "Oh! Munra, my friend." He gestured for the ent to take a seat. "I assume everything turned out alright?"

"Yes, we were able to recover the girl safely" He began explaining "She actually discovered a cave that is a myconid lair, not too far from here"

At this the scaly man frowned "Those are mushroom type monsters, right?"

"Yes, but they are extremely weak; ranging from level 5 to 9. There are, however, a ton of them" He pointed out. "They don't represent a menace, though. Apart from not being specially intelligent, the creatures are likely afraid of us now"

"Whatever for?" the dragon-kin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, we discovered her because she stopped to kill a few… dozens of them" The ent himself gave a sigh after explaining. "I would also like to apologize, given that we had to strike a bargain with the girl to bring her back in haste. We are sorry for not consulting everyone else on this matter."

"I don't like how that sounds. What type of bargain?" the Shinsekai asked, narrowing his eyes.

"She asked to keep two of the myconids as pets, so that, and I quote: 'she won't get bored anymore at her post'"

After his companion ́s explanation, the tension drained all at once from the dragon kin, who slumped his head and shoulders. "She sounds just like a pampered kid" Pinching the bridge of his nose, he added "Honestly, having to work with people like that would be stupid…"

"…but?" the Ent offered to him, as he appeared to be struggling to find the right words.

"But I just can't fault the NPC ́s. They are like children, taking after their parents. Even when I may have had differences with said parents…" The guild leader pronounced the last words with a grim expression.

"You're not really talking about Nightmare Lullaby and her twins, am I correct?" Munra asked.

"Well, there's that but…" he trailed off.

Seeming to catch the source of his leader's concern, he added "You're worried about Der Verwandendle, and Simon ́s report about his suspicious behavior"

The Scaly man made a difficult expression, ashamed by his exposed suspicion.

"Leader, I understand that you and Jackal never got along. However, I understand that your doubts don't arise from simple animosity towards his creator."

Letting a sigh, he smiled a little "Thanks, Munra; I am glad you won't judge me. Yes, I would like to settle this matter directly. I am thinking of proposing a group interrogation with all six of us; once Wallaquia and Hest arrive from their exploration mission."

"Perhaps, that would be for the best," the old man answered.

"As for more urgent matters, I would like to put you in charge of exploring the river that they reported about" He declared. "We need to secure a steady supply of water; and perhaps we could begin to make plans for an aqueduct."

"Certainly" the tall man gave a bow to show he accepted his mission "That would solve half of our immediate needs. As for the other one…" The ent seemed to mull things over for a second. "I think I have a proposal"

"And what could that be, my friend?"

"For starters, I would like to point out two things. Firstly, that there were an immensely huge number of Myconids in that cave" This caused the guild leader to once again raise an eyebrow in suspicion "And secondly, to remind you of the existence of certain cooking ingredients…"

As realization hit the guild leader, an expression of intrigue, amazement, discomfort; and other conflicting emotions, showed on his face "…Mushroom meat" To which the alchemist nodded. "You want to make a farm out of them?" Again, the man in front of him nodded.

"While I am aware that there are more evolved forms of myconids that possess full sapience." The professor began "The type found in this cave are simply too low level to possess the necessary traits. In this form, they are no more than beasts; which we wouldn't have problems hunting." After considering his next words, he added "We would do the same with plants or lizards"

Those last words seemed to make the dragon kin momentarily uncomfortable. However he quickly regained his composure. "I understand. Very well, we will talk in detail about this proposal in a future meeting, when everyone is present"

"Thank you" Munra gave a slow nod "Also, while we are on the subject of resources. Lillith pointed out something very important to me" the guild leader nodded, telling him to continue. "In summary, she signaled out that we no longer have access to trade." Seeing the expression on the dragon kin´s face, he continued.

"Something very obvious, yes. But what she meant is that we can't count too much on our stock pile of items. Because we may have a few finished products and a ton of gold in the treasury; But we have lost our means to produce more of said finished products" He added gesturing with his hand for emphasis "We are a factory without a supply line"

"Oh!" Shinsekai realized. _I really need to get a better grasp on things, if I am to be called the boss of this place…_ "Well, while stuff like monster drops and jewels are somewhat out of the question; I was thinking that Loxen could maybe…"

However, his train of thought was soon derailed; as both men –and their two other companions, in other parts of the guild- felt the now familiar sensation of a [Message] connecting.

"Uh…. Guys? Hest here" the voice of their human companion reached them.

"Hello! How is the expedition coming along? Have you already set up camp?" The Scaly man eagerly asked.

"Leader! Yes, well…we _may_ have a tiiiiiiny bit of a situation in our hands" the nervousness in the voice flowed like a broken dam.

"What is your status" The guild leader asked, now in a more serious tone.

"Well, do you remember a few hours ago, when we reported about a human fort? Well…" But before he could continue; the more deep voice of their other companion interfered.

"I engaged the target" The cyborg simply said.

"What?" Loxen ́s voice could be heard.

"I determined that if I didn't act in the moment, the slaves lives would have been put at risk" he coldly answered "I engaged the guards, and freed 20 prisoners, with which I am currently camping two miles from said fort."

"WHY in the love of-"

"Furthermore" the cyborg interrupted. "Our escape was flawed, and the fort is currently on high alert and in an agitated state. And I took the fort's commander as a hostage for interrogation"

"Son, did you seriously just get an entire fort, and possibly an army or even a country looking for us" The deep and raspy voice of Munra resounded "while we have no idea of our surroundings. Risking the safety of all of us, and our children" Now a cold wrath could be felt in the still neutral tone of the old man "For _Mere_ Slaves!?"

That seemed to make Wallaquia fall silent, but when he tried to retort "…I Judged that-"

" **YOUR ASS. HERE. NOW!** " A roar unlike none that any of them had ever heard resounded. It belonged to none other than the guild leader himself; who by now looked like anything but the gentle leader that Munra had come to know.

" **I'll deal with you when you get here.** " He started giving orders " **Hest. Remain Stationed there.** " Seething through his teeth, he calmed down a little. "Everyone else, I need suggestions. I want this… _**CLUSTERFUCK**_ solved by tomorrow noon."

After a brief moment of silence, Lilith`s voice could be heard.

"So… they are all bad guys, right?" she hesitatingly asked.

"Well, they were all a bunch of slave traders, so I guess?" added Hest.

"…There are also peasants in charge of some labors" Wallaquia added. "We had to neutralize one when we were leaving."

"Goodness gracious" Lilith said with a grunt. "Well. I'll ask so that we are all on the same page" She took a deep breath "Will our stance in this and future matters be influenced by our moral sense as humans…" she made a small pause, carefully considering her next words "…Or do we prioritize the safety of the guild; above all else?" Her emphasis in the last part made it clear which option she would choose.

"The great market" Shinsekai immediately answered.

"Our creations" Munra said shortly afterwards.

"Mmm…" Loxen mulled it for a second "Yeah, it may not be easy at times; but the guild and the NPC are the top priority"

"Well, with that said" Lilith cleared her throat "How about we consider the possibility of silencing the whole fort? _Permanently_ " she added in a serious tone.

"Humm…" The guild leader took the words seriously, and for a moment he submerged in deep thought. "Destroying a complete fort is a sure fire method to cause great turmoil in these lands." He reflected "And whoever they are, or are affiliated with; are influential or powerful enough that they can trade slaves. Whatever the socio-political state of this land; the fact is that slaves aren't a thing anyone can have. It is best to let sleeping hounds lie" He stood up and paced around his chair.

"However" he continued. "We have already stomped on its tail. And it is in the best of our interest to have that dog silenced before it can alarm of our presence" Using the same language as the angelic nun, he gave his approval.

After this, it was Loxen who hesitatingly said "So, how are we to go about, err… _Silencing_ them?"

The deep and snore voice of Enges Murna answered him "With haste. If we are to determine their demise, it is best to do so before they can give any alarm; and they are already altered"

Next, it was Puri Puri Lilith who spoke "Well, if that's the case; I think I've got an idea" She could feel that she had the guild leader ́s full attention, even through the mental call. "The point is to leave no witnesses, nor traces to follow us, right boss?"

"Correct, that would be the ideal" He simply stated.

"Then" She said, as she couldn't fight a slight malicious grin crawl to her face. "Why don't we send our little Kurizu to visit them?".


End file.
